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diff --git a/.gitattributes b/.gitattributes new file mode 100644 index 0000000..6833f05 --- /dev/null +++ b/.gitattributes @@ -0,0 +1,3 @@ +* text=auto +*.txt text +*.md text diff --git a/76990-0.txt b/76990-0.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..fc51b44 --- /dev/null +++ b/76990-0.txt @@ -0,0 +1,3818 @@ + +*** START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK 76990 *** + + + + + +LAST LETTERS +FROM THE LIVING DEAD MAN + + + + + BY ELSA BARKER + + LETTERS FROM A LIVING DEAD MAN + WAR LETTERS FROM THE LIVING DEAD + MAN + SONGS OF A VAGROM ANGEL + LAST LETTERS FROM THE LIVING DEAD + MAN + THE SON OF MARY BETHEL + THE FROZEN GRAIL + THE BOOK OF LOVE + STORIES FROM THE NEW TESTAMENT + FOR CHILDREN + + + + + LAST LETTERS + FROM THE + LIVING DEAD MAN + + + WRITTEN DOWN + BY + ELSA BARKER + + + WITH AN INTRODUCTION + + + + NEW YORK + MITCHELL KENNERLEY + 1919 + + + + + COPYRIGHT, 1919, BY + MITCHELL KENNERLEY + + + + + PRINTED IN AMERICA BY + J. J. LITTLE & IVES COMPANY + + + + + CONTENTS + + + INTRODUCTION 7 + + LETTER + + I THE GENIUS OF AMERICA 49 + + II FEAR NOT 54 + + III THE PROMISE OF SPRING 61 + + IV THE DIET OF GOLD 67 + + V CONTINGENT FEES 71 + + VI THE THREE APPEALS 74 + + VII THE BUILDERS 76 + + VIII THE WORLD OF MIND 88 + + IX AMERICA’S GOOD FRIDAY 95 + + X THE CRUCIBLE 97 + + XI MAKE CLEAN YOUR HOUSE 103 + + XII LEVEL HEADS 109 + + XIII TREES AND BRICK WALLS 112 + + XIV INVISIBLE ARMIES 114 + + XV THE WEAKEST LINK 118 + + XVI A COUNCIL IN THE FOREST 123 + + XVII THE IDEAL OF SUCCESS 140 + + XVIII ORDER AND PROGRESS 147 + + XIX THE FEDERATION OF NATIONS 155 + + XX THE NEW IDEAL 159 + + XXI A RAMBLING TALK 166 + + XXII THE LEVER OF WORLD UNITY 171 + + XXIII THE STARS OF MAN’S DESTINY 179 + + XXIV MELANCHOLY 182 + + XXV COMPENSATORY PLAY 190 + + XXVI THE AQUARIAN AGE 198 + + XXVII THE WATCHERS 209 + + XXVIII A RITUAL OF FELLOWSHIP 216 + + XXIX RECRUITING AGENTS 218 + + XXX THE VIRUS OF DISRUPTION 227 + + XXXI THE ALTAR FIRE 235 + + + + + LAST LETTERS FROM THE LIVING DEAD MAN + + + + + INTRODUCTION + + +THIS book, the third and last of the Living Dead Man series, was +written between February, 1917, and February, 1918. Then I lost the +ability--or perhaps I should say the inclination--to do automatic +writing. + +As this third manuscript was shorter than the other two, I had supposed +it to be a fragment which would probably never be finished; and it was +not until my publisher urged me to issue it _as_ a fragment that I +read it all over for the first time and discovered that it was really a +complete thing, an organic whole. + +“Perhaps,” I told myself, surprised and still half-incredulous, “there +_is_ a divinity that shapes our ends.” For had this book been +published when it was written, it would have seemed premature; now the +greater part of it is timely as yesterday’s editorials. + +For the benefit of those who have not read the earlier books of the +series, “Letters From a Living Dead Man,” 1914, and “War Letters From +the Living Dead Man,” 1915, I will quote from the Introductions of +those books. In the first Introduction I said: + + “One night last year in Paris I was strongly impelled to take up a + pencil and write, though what I was to write about I had no idea. + Yielding to the impulse, my hand was seized as if from the outside, + and a remarkable message of a personal nature came, followed by the + signature ‘X.’ + + “The purport of the message was clear, but the signature puzzled me. + + “The following day I showed this writing to a friend, asking her if + she had any idea who ‘X’ was. + + “‘Why,’ she replied, ‘don’t you know that that is what we always call + Mr. ----?’ + + “I did not know. + + “Now, Mr. ---- was six thousand miles from Paris, and, as we supposed, + in the land of the living. But a day or two later a letter came to me + from America, stating that Mr. ---- had died in the western part of + the United States, a few days before I received in Paris the automatic + message signed ‘X.’ + + “So far as I know, I was the first person in Europe to be informed + of his death, and I immediately called on my friend to tell her that + ‘X’ had passed out. She did not seem surprised, and told me that she + had felt certain of it some days before, when I had shown her the ‘X’ + letter, though she had not said so at the time. + + “Naturally I was impressed by this extraordinary incident.... + + “But to the whole subject of communication between the two worlds I + felt an unusual degree of indifference. Spiritualism had always left + me quite cold, and I had not even read the ordinary standard works on + the subject.... + + “Several letters signed ‘X’ were automatically written during the next + few weeks; but, instead of becoming enthusiastic, I developed a strong + disinclination for this manner of writing, and was only persuaded to + continue it through the arguments of my friend that if ‘X’ really + wished to communicate with the world, I was highly privileged in being + able to help him.... + + “Gradually, as I conquered my strong prejudice against automatic + writing, I became interested in the things which ‘X’ told me about the + life beyond the grave.... + + “When it was first suggested that these letters should be published + with an introduction by me, I did not take very enthusiastically to + the idea. Being the author of several books, more or less well known, + I had my little vanity as to the stability of my literary reputation. + I did not wish to be known as an eccentric, a ‘freak.’ But I consented + to write an introduction stating that the letters were automatically + written in my presence, which would have been the truth, though not + all the truth. This satisfied my friend; but as time went on, it did + not satisfy me. It seemed not quite sincere. + + “I argued the matter out with myself.... The letters were probably + two-thirds written before this question was finally settled; and I + decided that if I published the letters at all, I should publish them + with a frank introduction, stating the exact circumstances of their + reception by me.” + +The interest aroused by “Letters From a Living Dead Man,” which had +been published simultaneously in London and New York, astonished me. +Requests for translation rights began to come in, and I was flooded +with letters from all parts of the world. I answered as many as I +could, but to answer all was quite impossible. + +Now I will quote again, briefly, from the Introduction to the second +volume, “War Letters From the Living Dead Man,” 1915. + + “In that first book of ‘X’ I did not state who the writer was, not + feeling at liberty to do so without the consent of his family; but + in the summer of 1914, while I was still living in Europe, a long + interview with Mr. Bruce Hatch appeared in the ‘New York Sunday + World,’ in which he expressed the conviction that the ‘Letters’ were + genuine communications from his father, the late Judge David P. Hatch, + of Los Angeles, California.... + + “After the Letters were finished in 1913, during a period of about + two years I was conscious of the presence of ‘X’ only on two or three + occasions, when he wrote some brief advice in regard to my personal + affairs. + + “On the fourth of February, 1915, in New York, I was suddenly made + aware one day that ‘X’ stood in the room and wished to write; but as + always before, with one or two exceptions, I had not the remotest + idea of what he was going to say. He wrote as follows: + + “‘When I come back and tell you the story of this war, as seen from + the other side, you will know more than all the Chancelleries of the + nations.’” + +Then I went on to describe the process of my automatic writing, adding: + + “No person who had had even a minute fraction of my occult experience + could be more coldly critical of that experience than I am. I freely + welcome every logical argument against the belief that these letters + are what they purport to be; but placing those arguments in opposition + to the evidence which I have of the genuineness of them, the + affirmations outweigh the denials, and I accept them. This evidence is + too complex and much of it too personal to be even outlined here.” + +The second volume, which dealt with the war from the hidden side of +things, and predicted the victory of the Allies, aroused even more +interest than the first one. The flood of letters continued. + +In 1916, at the kind insistence of Joyce Kilmer, I published another +and different little book of automatic writings, “Songs of a Vagrom +Angel,” the angel being the Beautiful Being described by “X” in the +Living Dead Man books. The “Songs” were charmingly received by the +critics. The whole book, with the exception of three of the songs, had +been “written down” in twenty-two hours. + +In the summer of 1916 I went to California, and it was there, in +February, 1917, that the writing of this third book began. + +But I was growing more and more restive at the swamping of my literary +career by automatic writings, and my mountainous correspondence left +me less and less time for original work. Finally, in February, 1918, +the “inner conflict” culminated in a complete cessation of automatic +writing. + +The artist in me had become exasperated. If the reader will permit +the exaggeration of the simile, I felt as a man might feel who was +caught between the jaws of a lion that was carrying him away into a +trackless jungle. Before March, 1914, I had been known as a poet and a +novelist; since 1914 my name had become known in more countries than +I have counted as a “psychic,” a medium of communication between the +visible and the invisible worlds. I was not sorry that I had published +the books, because so many people had written me that I had saved them +from despair and even suicide; but I shrank from the publicity they +brought me. I have been nearly devoured by these books and the readers +of these books. I felt, in February, 1918, that I had a right to say +that the incident was closed. + +But that did not mean a cessation of correspondence. Suffering souls +to whose letters the limitations of time and uncertain health (for I +had not been well since 1915) made it impossible to respond by return +of post, would write again reproaching me with indifference to their +sufferings. The situation had become inconceivable. And if I went out +somewhere for an hour or two of social “rest,” I was surrounded by +people who wanted me to talk to them about the “X” books, about their +own dead friends, and the possibilities of communication. + +I was torn by pity for those who were suffering, and after years of war +nearly everyone was suffering; but I wanted to be at the front with +the Red Cross, and my health would not permit me to go. I could help +various war committees, but I could not go to my tortured and beloved +France--to be perhaps an added burden, should I break down altogether. + +The only escape from this conflict was in abstruse studies, studies +where pure mind can work. So I seriously took up Analytical Psychology, +in which I had been mildly interested since 1915. Some fourteen hours a +day for a year I studied, some of the time with a teacher, some of the +time alone. I burrowed under the theories of the three great schools, +and synthesized them, after my fashion. I had rather an active mind to +experiment upon--my own. The “resistances,” so-called, had been broken +down by the teacher. + +One of the things which appealed most to my reason was Jung’s +insistence upon the psychological (and therefore practical) value of +the irrational. He says: + + “There is no human foresight nor philosophy which can enable us to + give our lives a prescribed direction, except for quite a short + distance. Destiny lies before us, perplexing us, and teeming with + possibilities, and yet only one of these many possibilities is our + own particular right way.... Much can certainly be attained by + will-power. But ... our will is a function that is directed by our + powers of reflection.... Has it ever been proved, or can it ever be + proved, that life and destiny harmonize with our human reason, that + is, that they are exclusively rational? On the contrary, we have + ground for supposing that they are also irrational, that is to say, + that in the last resort they too are based in regions beyond the + human reason. The irrationality of the great process is shown by its + so-called _accidentalness_.... The rich store of life both is, + and is not, determined by law; it is at the same time rational and + irrational. Therefore, the reason and the will founded upon it are + only valid for a short distance. The further we extend this rationally + chosen direction, the surer we may be that we are thereby excluding + the irrational possibilities of life, which have, however, just as + good a right to be lived. Aye, we may injure ourselves, since we + cut off the wealth of accidental eventualities by a too rigid and + conscious direction.... The present fearful catastrophic world-war has + tremendously upset the most optimistic upholder of rationalism and + culture.” + +Now my rationally chosen “line of life” had been that of writing books +of poetry, fiction and essays. But “accidentalness” cut in, and I wrote +automatically and published what I had written. That destiny, that +second line of life, may also have been, for all we can prove to the +contrary, based “in regions beyond the human reason.” + +I should not like to say that my having led the way, in the spring of +1914, for writers of dignified reputation to publish their automatic +writings might have been causally directed by the coming great need of +the world for spiritual consolation during the most awful holocaust in +history. That would be pressing irrationality too far. + +But that second line of life, as Jung would call it, came to its +inevitable end with the last of this manuscript in February, 1918. The +cause of that was also seemingly accidental. But as this Introduction +is only an introduction, it is impossible to follow the course of all +the drops of water in the broad river that has flowed under my mental +bridges during the last fourteen months. + +My present line of life (and through the analysis of my dreams I have +means of knowing what it is) points to the resumption of my original +literary work, poetry, fiction and essays, and to the exclusion, so +far as possible, of everything that would deflect me from that course. +“Accidentality” will cut in from time to time, change of place and +therefore change of outlook, studies of all sorts, and legitimate +demands by that society of which I form a part; but I have done enough +automatic writing. Others will do it, if it must be done; and probably +it must--because it is an outlet which it might be unsafe to stop up in +the present state of the race consciousness. + +Of course if I should feel strongly impelled to do automatic writing, I +should do it, trusting to that destiny which is another name for causes +beyond our comprehension; but it was the strength of my “inner protest” +that made me realize that I had gone far enough along that line. + +As in the forewords to the former books, I state the psychological +situation of the moment, saying, “so and so happened.” The reader, as +before, will interpret in his own way. This introduction indicates my +point of view in the month of April, 1919. Before the month of May, +2019, I shall have solved the problem of survival, or demonstrated +(without knowing it) that it is insoluble. + +The more we know about all these things, the less likely we are to +assume that we have the sum of all knowledge. We are like children, +groping among psychological lights and shadows. + +My own belief in immortality seems ineradicable. I did not know that +until it was tested out. But we must always remember that our personal +belief is not absolute evidence of the truth of what we believe--at +least until we shall have examined all the psychological roots of +the belief, and in the present state of our knowledge that is +well-nigh impossible. Our rational belief, if we have formed one for +ourselves and have not merely accepted uncritically the beliefs of our +predecessors and associates, is merely our individual synthesis. But we +must not give an exaggerated value even to our own hard-won synthesis. +That also is a moving, an ever-changing, thing. Otherwise we should not +grow. When a man becomes fixed he begins to disintegrate. + +In the first book of this series I stated the fact that I had never +been interested in spiritualism. Consciously, I never had. Now, Dr. +Alfred Adler, the head of what we may call the Ego School of analysis, +says: “Often the negation is the assertion of an old interest that +has become unconscious.” Yes.... My father was deeply interested +in spiritualism, and I was born in an old house where ghosts were +supposed to walk. My mother was afraid of the subject. My father died +when I was thirteen. I was always a little afraid of my father. The +first time I met Judge Hatch I told him that perhaps he had been my +father in a “former incarnation.” He smiled, and said, “Maybe.” + +No microscopist had ever a greater interest in facts than I have. My +scientific friends say, “A scientist was lost in you.” Other friends +say, “You are a great psychic.” So there I found myself. In studying +with the scientific half the phenomena of the psychic half, I am able +to unify them. + +The _authority_ of the Church has been knocked from under us. We +are adrift, we thinking humans of the early twentieth century, upon a +sea of mind, stormtossed by winds of feeling. We were just beginning +to believe in universal brotherhood--when universal war broke out. Our +steersman seemed to have been washed overboard. Everybody wants to take +the helm, distrusting his neighbor’s judgment. Is it any wonder that +bewildered souls by thousands turned to automatic writing, seeking for +guidance, for something _authoritative_? In childhood our parents +guided us. Later the Church guided us--or tried to. Then science guided +us--a little too far. And in the reaction we turned inward, to find +(sometimes) the unconscious more troubled than the conscious. But in +the Letters which follow there is no despair, only light and courage +and hope. + +There seem to be two main streams in us, the mental and the +instinctive. Bergson says, in his “Creative Evolution,” “There are +things which intelligence alone is able to seek, but which, by itself, +it will never find. These things instinct alone could find; but it will +never seek them.” + +It was inevitable that modern psychology, with its constructive +curiosity, should turn its attention to the religious beliefs of the +past and present. There was no other way of understanding what really +goes on in the minds of people. Some of these old beliefs proved, +on examination, to be scientifically tenable. For instance, the +Theosophists (who got the idea from the Hindoos) tell us there are two +streams of evolution, the elemental and the human. Dr. C. J. Jung, +the head of the Swiss school of Analytical Psychology, divides the +stream of “energy” into two currents, one going forward and one going +backward. And this duality of will Bleuler calls “ambitendency.” The +difference is chiefly a difference of phraseology and associations. + +“Always the pull of the opposites,” I quote from the Letters which +follow. The present psychic wave which is sweeping over the world is +accompanied by modern analytical psychology. Truth may lie in the +synthesis. + +Between the credulity of those who believe everything purporting to +come from the other side of the veil, who accept every suggestion from +anybody claiming to be “psychic” who half-closes the eyes and says +dreamily, “You will do so and so,”--between this thirst for delusion +and the materialists’ denial that there is anything but matter and the +functions of _matter_, there is also a middle ground. + +The great pioneer of analytical psychology himself said, in a recent +little volume on “War and Death,” translated by Dr. A. A. Brill: “In +the unconscious every one of us is convinced of his own immortality.” +Suppose the unconscious should be right? + +And, by the way, between the statement of Christian Scientists, “All is +love,” and the statement of the parent school of psychoanalysis, “All +is libido,” there is striking similarity. + +Jung would say, “All is energy.” Judge Hatch wrote, in a little +book published in 1905, “We postulate immortal Units of Force, +each having the power to generate a constant but limited amount of +energy, and no two alike in quantity. Upon this force generation in +the unit, necessitated by law, do we base life. Life results from +the inter-dealing and inter-playing of these units among themselves +eternally, sometimes potential, again kinetic, each limited in the +amount of force generated, but unlimited in variety of motion, +manifestation or specialization.” + +Truth may indeed be one, though the roads to it are many. + +Fechner’s assertion, that the dead live in us and so influence us, does +not require much stretching to fit the hypothesis that the entire past +of the human race is contained in the deeper levels of the unconscious. +If we go deep enough in analysis that hypothesis is illustrated by +strange phenomena. + +It is unwise, at the present time more than any other, even to try +to take away man’s belief in immortality. The world is too sad, too +near the ragged edge where personal uncertainty drifts into social +irresponsibility. The psychic wave that is sweeping over the world, +though it is being carried to excess, as all overcompensations are, +answers nevertheless to a tremendous need. Credulity is the other end +of doubt. + +Dr. Smith Ely Jelliffe, in the Introduction to his translation of +Silberer’s “Problems of Mysticism and Its Symbolism,” says: + + “Much of the strange and _outré_, as well as the commonplace, + in human activity conceals energy transformations of inestimable + value in the work of sublimation. The race would go mad without it. + It sometimes does even with it, a sign that sublimation is still + imperfect and that the race is far from being spiritually well. A + comprehension of the principles here involved would further the spread + of sympathy for all forms of thinking and tend to further spiritual + health in such mutual comprehension of the needs of others and of the + forms taken by sublimation processes.” + +William James defended the Christian Scientists. And Jung himself says, +in one of his famous letters to Dr. Loy, “Every method is good if it +serves its purpose, including Christian Science, Mental Healing, etc.” + +During the last five years man has had such varied reasons for fearing +objective things that he has come to fear the subjective, perhaps even +more than during the Middle Ages. + +Dr. H. W. Frink says, in his masterly book on “Morbid Fears and +Compulsions”: “The biological function or purpose of fear is protective +or preservative. Every one of us alive to-day owes his existence to the +fact that his human and pre-human ancestors were afraid.” + +Nearly everyone is afraid of something. Sublime Jeanne d’Arc was +terribly afraid of the fire. (Perhaps she had been badly burned in +infancy, and the unconscious memory twisted and turned in the deeps of +her pure soul. Perhaps, and perhaps ... for we shall never know.) + +When we really know what fear is, we shall have solved the mystery of +“the one and the many” that disturbed the cerebration of our ancestors. +Fear may be a momentary surging up of the ego’s consciousness of +its own helpless littleness before the immensity of the unknown and +unknowable non-ego. The reckless courage of the soldier may be an +overcompensation, a triumphant sublimation--sometimes followed by +reaction, secret or unconcealable, depending on the intensity. + +For, as Silberer says, “The conflicts do not indeed lie in the external +world, but in our _emotional disposition towards it_; if we change +this disposition by an inner development, the external world has a +different value....” + +Man is indeed his own cosmos, the microcosm of the macrocosm, to a +degree incomprehensible to one who has not intelligently studied (and +in himself) the phenomena of “projection,” and compensation including +sublimation. + +The great mystics of all ages, through introversion, having discovered +this and reduced it to a science, after their fashion, great modern +scientists like Jung and Silberer have found their systems worthy of +profound study. + +Writing of mysticism, Professor Dwelshauvers of Brussels says: + + “The effects of mystic union are logical and coherent; a second + quality of the acts of the order of grace is the positive character of + the contribution, the increase which they bring to the psychic life of + those who benefit by them.... The idea of God, the divine presence, + or any other form of inspiration, is no more strange to the mind of + the religious man than is for the _savant_ the sudden conception + of a solution long sought for, or for the artist the vision of the + work which he meditates and of which he pursues the construction + with patience and tenacity.... Neither the invasion of the soul by + God, nor the ‘return’ of the mystics, has any resemblance to mental + disintegration.” + +It is not easy to get rid of God. + +Will you read what Jung says on this subject in the “Collected Papers +on Analytical Psychology,” edited by Dr. Constance E. Long: + + “The concept of God is simply a necessary psychological function.... + The _concensus gentium_ has spoken of gods for æons past, and + will be speaking of them in æons to come. Beautiful and perfect as + man may think his reason, he may nevertheless assure himself that + it is only one of the possible mental functions, coinciding merely + with the corresponding side of the phenomena of the universe. All + around is the irrational, that which is not congruous with reason. + And this irrationalism is likewise a psychological function, namely + the absolute unconscious; whilst the function of consciousness is + essentially rational.... Heraclitus, the ancient, that really very + wise man, discovered the most wonderful of all psychological laws, + namely, the _regulating function of antithesis_. He termed this + enantiodromia’ (clashing together) by which he meant that at some time + everything meets with its opposite.... Man may not _identify_ + himself with reason, for he is not wholly a rational being, and never + can or ever will become one. That is a fact of which every pedant of + civilization should take note. What is irrational cannot and may not + be stamped out. The gods cannot and may not die. Woe betide those men + who have disinfected heaven with rationalism; God-Almightiness has + entered into them, because they would not admit God as an absolute + function.... Only he escapes from the cruel law of enantiodromia who + knows how to separate himself from the unconscious--not by repressing + it, for then it seizes him from behind--_but by presenting it + visibly to himself as something that is totally different from + him_.... He must learn to differentiate in his thoughts between + what is the ego and what is the non-ego. The latter is the collective + psyche or absolute unconscious.... In order to differentiate the + psychological ego from the psychological non-ego, man must necessarily + stand _upon firm feet_ in his ego-function.... + + “Obviously the depreciation and repression of such a powerful function + as that of religion has serious consequences for the psychology of + the individual.... One period of skepticism came to a close with the + horrors of the French revolution. At the present time we are again + experiencing an ebullition of the unconscious destructive powers + of the collective psyche. The result is an unparalleled general + slaughter. That is just what the unconscious was tending towards. + This tendency had previously been inordinately strengthened by + the rationalism of modern life, which by depreciating everything + irrational caused the function of irrationalism to sink into the + unconscious....” + + “There is indeed no possible alternative but to acknowledge + irrationalism as a psychological function that is necessary and always + existent. Its results are not to be taken as concrete realities (that + would involve repression), but as _psychological realities_. They + are realities because they are _effective_ things, that is, they + are _actualities_.” + +So we need not be ashamed to admit that we pray! In this grim period of +history, when the soul is face to face with itself and its brother as +it has never been, we may speak with a greater simplicity than in the +old conventionally-smiling days before the war. I pray--and so do you, +whoever you are, if only by groaning “Oh, God!” when you suffer. Prayer +is an instinct. Even an atheist will pray, if he finds himself beyond +human aid. A friend of mine who was killed at the front used to take +holy communion every morning, and he was doubtless a saner and better +soldier for it. One need not be a Roman Catholic to see the beauty of +that act of faith. + +Whether God be a “dominant of the superpersonal unconscious,” a +psychological function, or a mathematical equation, makes not the +slightest difference to me. As William James would say, “He works.” + +And whether the souls of our dead live in us, as Fechner says, or +whether they are relics in the personal and collective unconscious, or +whether they are “concrete realities” that can materialize by using +astral and etheric substance, makes also not the slightest difference +to me. If you could know how utterly I am at peace about this whole +question! + +And many other differences appear, on close examination, to be mainly +differences of viewpoint and phraseology. The “astral world” of the +Theosophists, mediæval and modern, corresponds to a certain level of +the unconscious. “X” says in one of the Letters which follow, written +in 1917, that melancholy may be produced by the pressure of the unhappy +dead who make us fear. If you locate the dead in the unconscious, which +surges up in moments of passivity, the dead will have the same effect. + +Having given much of the leisure time of a laborious life to a study of +the theories and practices of mysticism and occultism, as formulated +by many different schools, I could write volumes (if I had the +inclination, which I have not) in tracing out the psychological roots +and the relations between these things. My own unconscious is rich with +such images. Some of the most striking parallels have not been written +about, so far as I know. + +And Jung seems to have covered, with the wide mantle of his +comprehension, even the frailties of those who believe in prophetic +dreams. He says: + + “The unconscious possesses possibilities of wisdom that are completely + closed to consciousness, for the unconscious has at its disposal not + only all the psychic contents that are under the threshold because + they have been forgotten or overlooked, but also the wisdom of the + experience of untold ages, deposited in the course of time and + lying potential in the human brain. The unconscious is continually + active, creating combinations of its materials; these serve to + indicate the _future path_ of the individual. It creates + prospective combinations just as our consciousness does, only they are + considerably superior to the conscious combinations both in refinement + and extent. The unconscious may therefore be an unparalleled guide for + human beings.... + + “The unconscious must contain all the material that has _not yet_ + reached the level of consciousness. These are the germs of future + conscious contents.” + +He seems to think that true prophecies are merely the result of +synthesis by the unconscious of tendencies (_whether in the personal +or universal unconscious_) significant for future occurrences. +Referring to Maeterlinck’s “inconscient supérieur,” he says of the +prophetic interpretation of dreams: + + “The aversion of the exact sciences against this sort of + thought-process which is hardly to be called phantastic is only an + _overcompensation_ of the thousands of years old but all too + great inclination of man to believe in soothsaying.” + +I am told that the hearing of voices in the hypnogogic state indicates +“a slight tendency to dissociation.” Very well. Probably the voices +come from a deeper level than automatic writing, whatever the +inspiration of automatic writing may be. + +Now while the things which “X” in the following letters advised +America to do, before America came into the war, were the very things +which we did _after_ we came into the war and which we could not +have done except as war measures, our entrance was not written down as +a specific prophecy in these letters. Any startling prophecy has always +had a tendency to shake me out of the passive state in which automatic +writing is possible. _But_--during the weeks from February to +April, 1917, in the hypnogogic state preceding sleep, I several times +heard, “We are coming into the war.” Of course I did not write that +down in the manuscript, as _it was not a part of the manuscript_. +What is heard is heard, what is written is written. I merely mention +it as a curious phenomenon for it was probably the synthesis of the +_deeper levels_ of my unconscious. It was certainly the tragic +hope of my conscious mind; but the conscious alone would not have +produced a voice. + +If anybody wonders that I should admit hearing hypnogogic voices, +I can only say that I regard these things rather objectively and +impersonally. I never hear voices except when half-asleep. If my very +accurate memory has not slipped a cog, William James used to talk +freely of his hypnogogic experiences. The more we know about our little +personalities, the less monstrously important they seem. And the +“hearing of voices” has more than once played a respectable rôle in +history, before and after Moses. + +But I do not imagine that I have any prophetic mission, nor do I feel +in any hurry to “unite myself with the ocean of divinity,” nor feel any +impulse violently to turn my back upon the universal. There is a happy +mean, which makes for efficiency in life, for health and understanding. + +I have touched upon analytical psychology in this Introduction because +I am so constituted that I cannot publish this last volume of my +automatic writings without indicating my point of view, with the same +frankness as in former Introductions. Please do not blame science +because I have not lost through the analytic process my instinctive +belief in individual immortality. I assure you it has not been the +fault of science. + +If anyone objects that I have only touched the threads of this great +web of psychology which lead towards the subject of this book, I can +only say that this foreword being by way of preface to this book, no +other course was possible on account of the limitations of space and +artistic relevancy. + +Psychology as a method of healing I leave to the physicians, who have +written many books about it, containing bibliographies. And booksellers +have catalogues. Anyone interested can write to them. + +This is by way of excusing myself from answering letters of enquiry. I +have unselfishly and laboriously written so many hundreds of letters! +Now I want to write other things. The resolution of psychological +“complexes” frees energy for sublimation in work. It frees ideas for +use in art. + +Dr. Beatrice M. Hinkle, in the introduction to her translation of +Jung’s “Psychology of the Unconscious,” says that “this psychology +which is pervading all realms of thought ... seems destined to be a +psychological-philosophical system for the understanding and practical +advancement of human life.” + +So, having found a well whose waters were refreshing, I note the +fact--and pass on. + +The train of thought which the reader has followed in this Introduction +is the train of thought which led me--after some delay--to the +publication of the book. + +I am glad that these “Last Letters from the Living Dead Man” are a call +to courage, to restraint, to faith in the great and orderly future +of America and the world, a call to all those positive qualities so +gravely needed in these days of the rebuilding of Peace. + +For I do not believe that Bolshevism, or any other form of lunacy, will +find foothold in the United States. A nation with universal suffrage, +for man and woman, certainly has no incentive for a resort to insane +destruction. In the last State campaign it was interesting to watch the +reactions of women to the privileges and duties of suffrage. I watched +it only in one party, the Democratic, but it was doubtless everywhere +the same. There was an added dignity, a sense of new responsibility, +and always courtesy and real fellowship among the women and the men. +Its happening to correspond in time with the Fourth Liberty Loan +campaign, and the printing of casualty lists, made it all the more +significant. No, these level-headed, socially-responsible women will +never be swept away by collective insanity; and as the men who return +from the front will return to these women, their mothers, wives and +sisters, I do not think that we shall lose in peace what we have gained +in war. + +And now--remembering always that this book was written between +February, 1917, and February, 1918--you may read the “Last Letters from +the Living Dead Man.” + + ELSA BARKER + +New York, Easter Day, 1919. + + + + + LETTER I + + THE GENIUS OF AMERICA + + + _February 3, 1917._ + +I WANT to write of America, land of my latest birth, land of the future. + +Great is the road that the Genius of America may travel, and her feet +have already passed the early stages of it. + +The Genius of America! + +Each land is watched over and its children guided--guided and moved--by +a Genius. + +Would you feel the Genius of America, go alone into the woods at +night, watch and listen and invoke. Perhaps the answer may come, its +recognition of you, your recognition of it. + +If you are one of those who can hear the words which the Great Ones +speak in the silence, perhaps you will hear something with the ears of +your soul. If so, do not hasten to divulge the message, but treasure it +in your heart; for that which is treasured in the heart can sometimes +be felt and understood by the hearts of others. + +If you are one of those who will serve willingly, the secret of your +heart may be shared in silence with those who can hear in the silence. + +The hour approaches when the mission of this land may be manifested. +The hour approaches when the Genius of this land shall force its will +upon this land. That will not be an easy task. So many wills have +sought to wrest the reins from the guiding hand; so many eyes, looking +in so many directions, have seen so many goals. But there is one will +so strong that it can, when its hour is come, gather up the wills of +men as a strong wind gathers a mass of loosely-lying straws and sweeps +them along. + +You know not the power of a will that has God behind it. You know not +the power of a purpose that has God behind it and the future before it. +Those who get in the way of the Genius of this land will be broken, +like straws that would resist the wind. + +I have watched from my unseen place the labors of many. I have helped +unseen with my faith to strengthen the hearts of many. I shall wait now +unseen till the act of destiny is accomplished. + +You who have followed me from my first gropings in the twilight of the +new life, before the clearness came; you who have followed me on my +journeys among the battlefields, both in and above the world, follow +me yet a little further, with your minds ajar for the entrance of the +truth I have to tell you, the advice I have to give you. For my advice +is disinterested as the rain, and my truth is offered as freely as the +light. + +I have come a long way since I laid down my body a few brief years ago, +years of a crowded brevity, in which the world has moved as fast as I, +and sometimes with more pain. For he who knows the purpose of his pain +can bear it better than the child who knows only that he suffers. + +I should have spoken to you before, but you would not let me. Child! +Would you stand in the way with your personal wishes, and your +shrinkings that are also wishes of a negative kind? + +Blocked by your will to avoid this labor, I sought another entrance; +but it was too much encumbered by prejudices and preconceived ideas, +and all the litter of mental fragments that had accumulated through +years of residence in a creed-bound place. You who have dwelt but +briefly in many tents have no obstructions at your door, save such as +are placed by your will, and those I now sweep away. + +I shall pass in and out, and speak to you as I choose. + + + + + LETTER II + + FEAR NOT + + + _February 8, 1917._ + +DID I not tell you many months ago that the soul of Abraham Lincoln +kept watch above this land that he died to save from disruption, and +that he would keep vigil until America should have passed through her +next great trial? You questioned then what that trial would be. Do you +question now? And yet you do not know. + +Slowly the months have gone by, receding into the past. When, in the +spring of 1915, you saw in vision the German Emperor in spiked helmet +standing opposite to Uncle Sam in his shirt-sleeves, did you not +suppose that it would come to this? You are wise to keep such visions +to yourself. + +Do not fancy that this war will end without greater changes than the +world has ever known before. When I told you nearly two years ago that +the battle between the powers of good and evil had been won in the +invisible regions, I knew because my Teacher told me so; but do not +believe that the new age can dawn without greater trouble and greater +changes than you can now imagine. Birth is change and birth is painful, +and birth is bloody and exhausting. The pains that have gone before are +only the pains of labor. + +The stars in their courses fight for the new race. + +I have written of the bloody fields of Europe. Now I would write of +America and her future, her near and her far future; for the sun is +approaching the Eastern horizon and the dawn clouds are already tinged +with the coming day. + +America, do not despair! Your destiny is assured. In the storms to +come, think of the freshness after the storm, when the ground shall +smell sweet and birds shall sing. For birds will sing to the children +of the new age. + +In the midst of changes there will come a lull. The world will say, “It +is over, the old things will return, and all will be as before.” But +nothing will ever be exactly as it was before. In the lull you shall +draw breath, and make ready for other changes. Yes, many things will be +changed, even the hearts of men. + +The world has known terror. Without experience of terror, without the +poise that comes from the facing of terror undaunted, the world could +not face the future without failure. Is there anything now, after +thirty months of war, that could surprise the world? Is there anything +that the world could not face? + +Oh, remember that you are immortal, and that you who go out of life +will come back again, strengthened by the rest in the invisible! For a +change of place is a rest of consciousness. To those whose nerves are +weary, wise doctors prescribe a change. A rest in the invisible worlds +is more refreshing than a summer in the mountains. Do not fear death. I +passed through death, and I am more rested now than a strong man in the +morning. I would not go back to my old body. When I want a body again I +shall build a new one. I know the process of building, having built so +many before. + +Be joyous with me. A wise man once said that only the unendurable is +tragic. The world, and the souls of the world, can endure the change +that is coming. Have not wars prepared them for it? That is why wars +had to be. + +America is rich. Her vaults are full of gold, her mines are full of +ore, and her fresh soil is full of richness. Shall she fear a future +in which labor can procure all things for the body, and faith can +procure all things for the soul? The history of this land is a history +of faith. Did not Columbus start across the trackless ocean, led only +by the star of his faith? Did not your ancestors follow, led by their +faith in the future? The past has gone back to God, it is safe as a +dead man; but the future is coming to you, and your faith shall make it +sure. + +Fear naught. In the early days of this land your forefathers slept in +quiet, though the red man lurked in the forest, and hunger lurked in +the failure of harvests, and men and children could only be winter-warm +when trees had been felled for fuel. Now you fear famines of coal? The +earth is heavy with coal. You fear famines of wheat, when your muscles +grow fat for lack of exercise. They who came first to this land had +varied reasons for fear, but you have no reasons for fear. Labor is +sweet. The child who makes labor of play can vouch for the truth of +that saying. Can you not then make play of your labor? When I was a +child I built houses of blocks. I longed to be building. I dug ditches +in the garden. I made boats of chips and sailed them on a puddle. I +planted seeds. + +And learning? In the libraries of the world and in the brains of men +is stored the learning of the ages. The new age will not lack the +archives of all ages. Though paper is less enduring than parchment, it +will last over into the new age. Fear not. + +By hints I convey to your mind that many changes will come. What then? +All progress is change. Go out with it to meet the future, with a smile +on your face and a song on your lips. The future wears a rose in its +buttonhole, as your Vagrom Angel would say. + + + + + LETTER III + + THE PROMISE OF SPRING + + + _February 17, 1917._ + +WHEN you learn to think of life as a whole, of which you are a part +containing in yourself the potentialities of the whole, then you +will look upon these great changes with joy. The One must sometimes +sacrifice itself to Itself, and by elimination secure a new lease of +life. The whole--call it the race, or the earth-spirit, or what you +will--may grow too fat and lazy, as a man may grow too large to move +about with ease, and then by war among the organs, by fever, fasting or +remedies, the equilibrium is restored, and he starts again a new man, +ready to face the future. + +Grim, does it seem? But who told you that the purposes of life were +always smiling? In the deeps of the earth and in the deeps of man are +dark substances. + +The cold of winter is a hardship for those who expose themselves to the +elements; but winter is the ebb-tide of that changing sea of life whose +flood-tide is the summer. Rhythm, always rhythm. + +I would not have you discouraged by the winter of the race, for the +spring will come and the roses will bloom again. March winds! They are +followed by April showers and Mayflowers. We are now in February. + +When the skies are dark and the snows fall, we gather round the fire +and think of the future, when the flowers shall bloom again and green +grass shall cover the earth and birds shall sing in the trees. The sun +“crosses the line” in March when the winds blow, and enters the sign +of the Ram, and the Zodiac is traversed again by the great light-giver +the Sun. Do you shiver and grow afraid when the Equinox approaches? + +The soul, too, has its winter of materialism and its ideal spring. + +I have looked at the world from the outside, and I see no cause for +despair. I have looked at the soul from the inside, and I see great +cause for rejoicing. + +You look forward to the end of the war, but the soul must battle to the +end of its journey. So long as the soul is cased in matter there will +be wars enough, for the greatest struggles are the soul’s struggles +with itself. I have told you this before. Sometimes it goes out to +fight, sometimes it goes in; the sword will not rust in the scabbard. + +Think less of yourself and think more of the race. You lose the vision +of the whole by regarding too closely the parts, by regarding too +closely yourself that is only one of the parts. Think of yourself as +the race, and think of the race as yourself; then yourself becomes the +race, and the race becomes yourself; “the Universe grows I.” + +There was once a God so great that the cells of his body were minor +gods. You may become so great that the cells of your body will be glad +to sacrifice themselves to your welfare. By renouncing the will to +live, you may make yourself immortal. By renouncing the will to joy, +you may become joyous. + +Once I desired to be a great man. Now when I only desire that Man shall +be great, I have increased in stature myself. + +Once I desired to be loved; but now when I love for love’s sake and not +for my own sake, I am loved by a multitude. Surely I found my life by +losing it, and the words of the Master were justified. + +I look down at the world as I once looked down at my garden. I see that +the grass is sprouting and I know that seeds are in the ground. I have +planted seeds in the hearts of men that shall germinate and reach up +towards the sunshine, for I had faith in the spring. + +For a while I have left Europe to itself, and have come back to the +land I love best. I have journeyed from State to State, and have +watched the wills of our legislators. They too are aware that a Force +is at work through them. They feel the responsibility of their place, +they feel themselves as moving parts of the great whole whose name is +America. The Flag is the symbol of their consecration. + +I have walked in the woods, where the spirits of the land fore-gather +for counsels which the newspapers do not report. They too are aware of +their consecration. They strengthen you with their faith. When I lived +as a man in America I did not know America. To know the meaning of home +we must wander. + +I am all for unity now. Do not let yourselves be weakened by fear of +the parts. America is a whole, and as a whole she must work. To fuse +these many races together is the mission of the present hour. Do not +lend your hearts to division. + +I see a great leader of men who shall arise in this land. His mission +will be the union of races. He will be a teacher and a prophet. + + + + + LETTER IV + + THE DIET OF GOLD + + + _March 10, 1917._ + +THE very influences that now tend to disrupt this country will later +draw it together. The many will find their meeting-point in the One. +That idea of national unity must be fostered, even to the extent of +patient tolerance of racial temperaments. Those who are in the process +of being separated from their old race and amalgamated with the new +race, feel the strain of the change. It irritates them and their +blood protests, even when their wills bid them forge new bonds for +themselves. Few “hyphenated Americans” would be willing to go bodily +back to their old allegiance. + +America is the most interesting of all countries, and we who see it +from this side of the airy frontier see it in historical perspective. +The view that is nearest to our point of view is that of your present +Chief Executive. His eyes are far-seeing. He anticipates the clearer +sight that will one day be his, when he has finished his work. + +Our country is suffering at this moment, in March, of the year of our +Lord nineteen hundred and seventeen, from an indigestion of gold. You +have swallowed more gold than you can assimilate, and your organs are +congested. If to restore the equilibrium, some of this gold should be +regurgitated, by war or by other means, do not in the weariness that +follows fancy that the nation is going to die. + +Do not be shocked by my figures of speech. I want to get into your +consciousness an understanding of facts and conditions as they exist. + +You cannot feed on gold. “Gold is a medium of exchange.” When it is +merely hoarded it has lost its relation to life. A miser nation is a +sadder subject for contemplation than a miser man, with his long claws +and his gloating eyes. He may think, the miser man, to secure himself +from the dangers of the future by amassing gold for its own sake. A +miser nation may think that by amassing gold for its own sake it can +save itself from the financial dangers threatening the world after +these years of war. + +But the miser, known as such, is in danger of being robbed and +murdered. And the miser nation is in danger of being attacked and +looted by other nations. + +You Americans want to be generous to the homeless and foodless people +of Europe; but your generosity has not yet deprived of one square meal +the hundred-million-headed being that is America. + +I do not care so much what you do with your gold. But I care much what +you do with your food. You are not alchemists that you can make gold +potable. You are humans with delicate stomachs. Even a hen will not lay +eggs for you unless she is well fed. If she protests, you can punish +her by eating her; but the luckiest break of her wish-bone will not +produce for you another hen. Better conserve her labor power by gifts +of grain, and have your eggs for breakfast and for hatching. She has +periods of laziness when she wants to sit still; but put a few of her +own eggs under her, and watch for results. Later I shall tell you of +other but no less practical ways of ensuring a supply of breakfasts. + + + + + LETTER V + + CONTINGENT FEES + + + _March 10, 1917._ + +TO-DAY I heard that a certain rich man (unmindful of the camel and the +needle’s eye), supposing that the letters from this Living Dead Man had +been profitable to you, that there was “money in them,” was considering +the question of whether he should financially back a medium who +stood ready to declare that she was in communication with me, that I +repudiated the books written through you, and stood sponsor for certain +manuscripts written “through” her, as my only genuine messenger to the +world. + +I join in your laughter, at your supposed “profitable” investment in +the securities of the other world, and at the eagerness to get aboard +a sea-of-ether-worthy ship exhibited by people who have not paid their +fare. + +I may as well tell you now that this country and some others are +scattered over with supposed “communications” from me. It would seem +that my writing arms are as numerous as the feet of a centipede. It +would also seem by the style of some of these supposed communications, +by their contents and their contradictions, that I have as many minds +as Indra has eyes. + +Even the elementals of the ouija board do not contradict themselves so +frequently as these amanuenses make me contradict myself. I think you +will have to trademark me. + +After the serious nature of my recent letters, it relaxes me to jest. + +If you include this letter in the book, please head it “Contingent +Fees.” + + + + + LETTER VI + + THE THREE APPEALS + + + _March 11, 1917._ + +I STAND outside the world and look inside the hearts of men. I see more +than I saw when I was a man among them. Had I then looked as deep into +my own heart as I now look into theirs, I should have seen the hearts +of my fellow beings reflected in my own, for we differ from one another +as one insect differs from another. There are differences between +insects. + +I look into your hearts, O men! and this is what I see: Ideals and +hypocrisy, self-interest and altruism, hunger and satiety. + +Shall I, in offering advice, appeal to your ideals, your +self-interest, or your hunger? The opposite three would never spur you +to action along the lines I would have you spurred. + + + + + LETTER VII + + THE BUILDERS + + + _March 22, 1917._ + +I HAVE promised to offer you advice as to how you may restore your +equilibrium. Use much of this superfluity of gold in rebuilding +devastated Europe. Give her credits and give her food. You who can work +in the fields, raise food to feed Europe. You who can build, give the +labor of your hands wherever it is needed. You who are discontented +here, go back to that Europe which gave you birth. By so doing you will +give yourselves a new point of view, and you will give yourselves a new +interest. A new interest is a new lease of life. + +Make sacrifices. In saying that, I have two objects in view, the +effect on the world and the effect on yourselves. + +To work for the ideal is sometimes more practical than to work for what +is called the real. + +When I tell you to rebuild Europe, you can take it as ideal advice +or practical advice, depending on your point of view. It is ideal +because Europe needs rebuilding; it is practical because just now +and for a time to come America needs to get her mind on something +outside herself. We give that advice to individuals when they are too +self-centred. There is so much discontent and so much uncertainty that +anything which can catch and hold the attention of masses of men, which +can make them forget themselves, may enable them to be used by the +Genius of the race, which works for the welfare of the race as a whole. + +Lend your money to Europe, and do not ask usurious interest. Yes, you +can take interest, for money has earning power, and the laborer--even +the laborer Gold--is worthy of his hire. But help by your generous +lendings at low interest to lessen the awful burden of taxation for the +people of Europe, which makes also for discontent and discouragement. + +Go to Europe, many of you, that you may see what war does to a country, +what it might do to your country should you selfishly expose yourselves +to a desire on the part of outsiders to take from you by force that +which you have so skilfully acquired. + +Go, that you may see and feel, as you can only see and feel face to +face, the spirit of self-sacrifice and national devotion which has +animated the people of Europe in this long war. They have found their +souls, but you have not yet found your soul. + +There are engineers in this country who are less needed here than they +will be needed in Europe. There are specialists in all the branches +of science who are more needed there than here. We have specialists +enough. We can spare a few of them. + +Build ships. Build more ships. Keep the men occupied. Give them +an objective. Do not let them brood. An idle brain is the devil’s +workshop. If you have not work enough, make work. There are things +enough to be done. Build ships. + +Now in regard to your management of railroads and other public +utilities. The day for government control was heralded when the threat +of a strike came that would have, if put into effect, blocked the +wheels of the nation. All those public utilities whose blocked wheels +could threaten the national life and the movements of men should +be managed by the government. This is not socialism, or any other +_ism_. You who have stock in them, do not take alarm. A way can be +found that will satisfy you. + +Think of the good of the whole, for you who are a part cannot prosper +without the welfare of the whole. This is not cant. It is a sort of +race biology. I look down and see you as a great being, and I prescribe +for you as a being, a race-unity, not as a few individuals here and +there. The cells in the body of the race-being must all be working +together. Get a unit of consciousness, as a race. Yield yourselves to +the consciousness of the race-unit. Be as individual as you please, but +be individual parts. Get into balance with other individuals, positive +and negative. + +Make the rebuilding of Europe an objective point. Make it possible for +many discontented workers to go to work in Europe. You may say that the +armies of Europe, when released from military service, will furnish +workers enough; but there cannot be too many. There is a double object +in this: the object of getting work done, and that of the psychological +effect upon the worker. + +I wish I could get into your minds by infusion the state of +consciousness that is mine. I wish I could make you see that separation +is death and that unity is life. + +I have spoken of government control of railroads, but that is only +the beginning. There should be governmental handling of food. Begin +gradually, one thing after another. It is the destiny of the world to +go in that direction. You cannot block the wheels of that chariot. + +_Serve if you hope to survive_ would be a good motto. You cannot +survive if you do not serve--all of you. I like that figure of the cell +which is a part of the race-being. It is the way I see you. + + +Just a word about nervous diseases. Yes, it is related to what I have +been saying. When at last the let-up comes after the unnatural strain +of war, the minds of men in going back, or in attempting to go back to +their normal state, may find themselves unable immediately to adjust +to the changed conditions. For a long time the brains of men and women +have been stimulated by the coffee of concerted action; when they are +thrown back on themselves they may relax too much. + +Or, on the other hand, an unnatural excitement may drive them into +all kinds of excesses. Have you ever seen victims of mania who could +not rest, who had lost the ability to rest? They walk up and down, +and drum with their feet, and clench their hands. So many men and +women may be, after this war. There is certain to be an excess of love +excitement, and work is a good panacea for that complaint. + +Then again, after years of war, years in which many have not known in +the morning whether they would be alive at night, they may retain the +habit of dread. They may fear to rest and fear to relax. Thus they may +welcome any excitement, as a substitute for the stimulus to which they +have been accustomed. + +That is another reason why I would send Americans to labor with the +laborers of Europe. Not that the American working man is phlegmatic, +far from it; but with his mind unaccustomed to fear anything, except +the loss of his job and consequent hunger, he will have an effect +of confidence and hope on those around him. The American likes to +feel that he is leading, and in what better way can he indulge that +propensity than in leading his associates to hope? + +You have no idea--you cannot have an idea--of the great depression that +will follow this war for a short while. It will be the relaxation, +the letting go. Always after war the ebb-tide is followed by great +activity; but it is that ebb-tide which we have to consider. + +You in America will feel it. You have become accustomed to seeing gold +flow towards these shores. When the stream lessens, you will have to +combat the tendency to fear that lessening. Panics are like personal +fear, intensified by mass. + +The world is drawing close together, and what influences a part +influences the whole. + +After the war will also come an opening of the psychic senses of men, +everywhere. This, while good in itself, may become an added danger. +Prophets, true and false, will arise everywhere, with many remedies for +the diseases of souls and of bodies. + +If I may make another suggestion, it would be that those who have +psychic awakening should think twice before proclaiming the fact. It +is a new sense that is coming into manifestation; but as the opening +of the eyes in an early stage of evolution probably revealed as many +dangers as blessings, so the new sense will reveal dangers. Do not try +to close the new sense, but do not be carried away by it. Remember that +it will be practically general, and like every new sense it will be +defective for a long time. It will reveal false things as well as true. +If a man opened his eyes for the first time upon a harmless tree, he +might mistake it for a monster. + +Restraint in all things, moderation in all things, even in the +laudable desire to action. Weigh and measure. Prove before accepting +anything--prove by reason and by intuition if you cannot wait for proof +by practice. Weigh and measure what I say, as well as what the wildest +new prognosticator says. Discourage hysteria. A wave of hysteria is +likely to sweep over the world. + +As revolution follows revolution, the startled inhabitants of the world +may tell themselves that nothing in the universe is stable, that all is +going to destruction, and that as they cannot save themselves from what +seems to be universal chaos, they may as well get all the pleasurable +excitement possible out of the passing moment. Restraint, restraint! + +I see women afraid to bear children because of the uncertainty of +the morrow. I see men afraid to marry because of the uncertainty of +domesticity. I see farmers hesitate to plant because of the uncertainty +of the harvest. Again I say, be not afraid. + +If you sow, you shall reap. If you marry, you shall build a home. If +you have children, the race will protect them--and you are a part of +the race. + +Restraint! Fearlessness! + + + + + LETTER VIII + + THE WORLD OF MIND + + + _March 24, 1917._ + +I WISH that more people of sane, sound mind would experiment in +telepathic communication. I know there is any amount of uncoordinated +and half-serious playing with phenomena; but with scientific accuracy +of observation and scientific precision in recording data, not only +the body of _sensible_ literature on these subjects would be +increased, but the habits of careful observation and precision in +reporting supernormal facts would be developed in the experimentalists. + +You who write for me, continue to make and to record experiments. You +are almost too cautious, but most persons are not cautious enough. + +Explain the necessary conditions of passivity and activity between +those working together. Though the best results are often obtained +by you alone, yet the testimony of one person is not so convincing +as the testimony of several who have witnessed and taken part in the +same phenomena. But you are right in hesitating to take on the psychic +conditions of insincere and merely curious people who would like to +work with you. + +The great difficulty with most persons is that they cannot make +themselves sufficiently negative _for the time being_. When the +experiments are over they can and should become equally positive. They +can shift from one pole to the other, and they must do so if they wish +to preserve their physical health and balance. + +But bear in mind that the influences from this side are good and bad, +even as the influences in the world are; and if you feel that any +“presence” is hostile, at once banish it and become positive. After any +approach by an undesirable influence, you should not for some hours let +yourself become negative. Go for a walk, or attack some difficult piece +of work, or read a book that demands mental activity in order to grasp +its meaning. + +You live in a sea of mind, as well as in a psychic sea; they +interpenetrate, and they interpenetrate with the physical; but in +working through and with them, keep them as distinct as possible. + +I work more and more in the mental world, and less and less in the +astral; but the majority of my readers will not know exactly what I +mean by that statement. There is a greater difference between the +astral and the mental than there is between the astral and the physical. + +Do not despise the astral. Its dynamics are of colossal import. But +cultivate more and more the purely mental, because the astral in all of +you is developed beyond the mental. + +In my former writings I have told you something of the dangers of the +astral. Now I want to tell you some of the more obvious dangers of the +mental. + +Those who learn that they can create in mind need to develop a sense +of responsibility. They are too reckless in demonstrating their +power. Remember that as you go up in the planes of being you get into +subtler and subtler regions, and strength increases with the degree of +subtlety--not the reverse, as you would naturally suppose. + +One of the greatest temptations of the mental world is that of the +creation of falsehoods. By stating that which is not true, you project +into the realm of mind a picture that has a certain permanency. It may +deceive others, but in time it will deceive you, its creator. Those who +speak falsely cannot perceive truth. Those who create false pictures +in the mental world will be deceived by those very pictures; they will +reap the effects of the causes they have set up. + +Have you not known people who were always being deceived by their +“friends”? They are generally those who have left deceiving pictures +behind themselves. There are people who cannot discriminate between the +false and the true. They deceive and are deceived. Those who deceive +are always deceived, whatever their supposed intellect may be. + +And I would say to those to whom I now suggest experiments with +clairvoyance and telepathy, that if they have planted the seeds of +falsehood they will reap a harvest of deceptive appearances. Test +yourselves in that way, you who believe yourselves to be sincere. You +may learn something of value regarding your own karma. (Yes, I will +use Theosophic or Indian terms when they express my meaning. Those +who re-write the Oriental philosophies in western terms can pass for +original only with the ignorant.) + +What the new race needs most of all is truth. Modern science is +preparing the world for the fearless facing of truth. The man who toils +over a microscope that he may observe and record some _fact_ in +nature, is more the servant of God than the man who with sanctimonious +face tells his fellow creatures what they must _not_ do; for his +work at least is positive in its results. + +There are too many “thou shalt nots”; too few “I shalls.” + +The new race will develop a wide tolerance. It will discourage +undesirable things more by ignoring them than by attacking them. By +attacking a thing we give it power. + +Work more and more in the world of mind. The results in the physical +will be immense. + + + + + LETTER IX + + AMERICA’S GOOD FRIDAY + + + _April 6, 1917._ + +IT is past midnight. It is Good Friday. Momentous decisions for the +world and for all time are heavy in the souls of men. + +On the day that this day stands for, in the long ago, a man (who +was also a god) stood forth alone for the ideas of love and human +brotherhood. At last, after all these years, the thing for which he +died may be realized. But there was a crucifixion on that Friday, +centuries ago. + +I have brought you from a far-away shore that you might witness a great +struggle in the souls of men. You have arrived at a centre.[1] + +To-day, in thousands of churches throughout Christendom, prayers will +be offered to the god-man who died that the god in man might live. +To-day in millions of hearts the cross will be set up. + +It is so still here at midnight, at a few minutes past midnight on this +day of days. + +Christianity has arisen, and presses forward to Golgotha to witness an +event. + +Pray! Prayer is the affirmation by the soul of its unity with the One. +War is the affirmation of the soul of its separateness from many. + +Love your enemies. It is the only way that you can conquer them. + + +FOOTNOTES: + +[Footnote 1: I had arrived in New York a few hours before after a long +sojourn in California.] + + + + + LETTER X + + THE CRUCIBLE + + + _April 12, 1917._ + +LET us speak a little of this initiation through which the race is +passing. Always the trials precede the attainment. + +When these wars are over there will be a new world, for the souls +of men will have been baptized with the fire and the blood. America +must have her part in it. To her also must come the trials and the +attainment. Watch and pray. + +Some day I will send you back to commune with the soul of the Old +World--some day _we_ will send you back. It is another Europe you +will find, a Europe tried by fire, and some of it will be fine steel, +and some of it will be clinkers in the furnace, for the fire proves the +metal, and separates the metal from the slag. + +From before the war to this day, the battles of the earth have been +enacted also in your soul, the blood and the fire, the pain and the +travail. You too have passed through the fiery furnace. + +Long ago, when you identified your soul with the soul of the world, +you took upon yourself the trials of the world, the initiatory trials. +You also called down upon yourself the weight of your old karma, the +effects of the causes you had set up through the ages. That you are at +rest for a time means only that you have worked yourself free from a +little of the load. Had you not done it now, you would have had to do +it in the future. Rejoice for every trial that brings you nearer to the +goal. And this I say for all men. + +If I speak of the world now, instead of that part only that we call +America, it is to identify the part with the whole. If I speak of you +personally, it is to identify you with the whole. + +Back in that Europe to which you will go, you will find two classes, +those who have become fine steel, and those who have become refuse. You +will know the one from the other. + +They will welcome you back, for you have passed through the fire with +them. They will welcome your country, too, for it now turns its face to +the fire. + +Be not discouraged by dismal prophecies. Man does not live by bread +alone. If you have less to eat, your bodies will grow finer. If you +have more to do, your minds and spirits will expand. Few of you work to +your full capacity. The unit of force that is man may generate much +energy, drawing it up from the deeps of himself at the call of need or +of will. + +Work harder now. Once I told you to rest more, but the laborers are +called to the vineyard. The hour of rest will come again, when the day +draws near its close. + +In entering into the war, my country, put away all rancor, and fight +for the right in which there is no rancor. Hate not. The hour for hate +is past. (I say this, knowing that Hate and Fear, the mother of Hate, +will come and challenge your souls.) + +I do not hate, and I do not fear, and I shall stay with you until the +day draws to its close. Are you sorry now that you let me speak again? +When fear comes to your house, I will speak to you of courage. When +hate shall menace you, I will turn it into love. I have found the +Philosopher’s Stone that can transmute base metals into gold. + +Hate will be turned to love in this land where the Eagle cries. Listen +to the cry of the Eagle. It is a free bird, and it flies high. Its +message has only been hinted at, in the years that have yet been +numbered. The Eagle will teach freedom. They will listen--across the +sea. + +America is indeed the melting-pot of nations. I can find no better +figure of speech. The German-American who is loyal to America now, +who hides the tragedy in his heart behind a brave face, may also come +through the furnace fine steel. + +I am glad you know that they suffer. Hold the loyal ones in your heart, +with all other loyal Americans. So you will help in the process of +melting. To some of them the tragedy will open the doors of initiation. +Their loyalty to a pledge is a finer trial than the fire of a +battlefield. Those who are loyal must not be made pariahs. Of those who +are disloyal I say nothing, but leave them to the Law. + +The initiatory process! It has the earth in its grasp. There are those +whom you love that it has in its grasp, too. They suffer, as you have +suffered. But they shall find peace. + + + + + LETTER XI + + MAKE CLEAN YOUR HOUSE + + + _May 4, 1917._ + +DO you know that the human race is being weighed in the balances? Work +and pray that it may not be found wanting. + +We who dwell in the clear light of that world which is to you the Other +World, can see the handwriting on the wall. + +The world has been too dishonest. In an honest world, could this war +have been? In the world that is to come, nation will not distrust +nation, nor man distrust man. But now distrust is a necessary part of +the human equipment. You may trust--but not too far. You may love your +neighbor--but not too much. You may do to your brother as you would +have him do to you--but not all the time. + +America was built on a foundation of ideals; but there is too much of +the mud of personal seeking mixed with the good clay of your bricks. + +You washed away with your blood one plague-spot, that of slavery; but +there is another plague-spot you have got to wash away. Will you do it +with the free water of good will, or will you do it again with your +blood? I wait to see. + +Do not say that the world’s troubles are over, because America has +come into the war. The world’s troubles are not over. When the war is +over--the greater war--make clean your house, O America! + +There is no other civilized country where the premiums upon dishonesty +are so high. + +Can you buy a pound of butter and be certain that you get sixteen full +ounces? Can you buy a pound of meat and be sure that the scales are +true? + +A new race is being born. Begin with those children, and teach them +honesty before you teach them geography--honesty with the parents, +honesty with each other, honesty with themselves. “As the twig is bent +the tree inclines.” + +When I was a little boy I was taught that George Washington could not +tell a lie. I had an ideal of George Washington. I wanted to emulate +him. And so when I was a man I sought truth. I looked for it on the +surface of the ground, and also in deep wells. Once I spent years +in the wilderness trying to find truth in myself. I remained in the +wilderness until I found it. Had I not found it, I should have left my +bones there. + +You need a new set of copy-book maxims. If the boy who writes “Honesty +is the best policy” at school in the morning, sees in the afternoon his +father trying to trade a balky horse for a good roadster, he wonders +if his teacher is fooling him. The disillusionment of children is +tragic with menace for the coming State. I would rather see reproach +in the eyes of an Adept Teacher than in the eyes of a child. If I fail +my Teacher I do not hurt him seriously, if I fail my child I hurt him +irreparably. + +You must face the fact that the life of America is going to be +reorganized. + +You have wondered why I have not written of late. I have been busy, +studying America. I have seen much that I can tell you, and much that +I cannot tell you--yet. For I want you to be quiet. You could not be +quiet if you knew as much as I know. + +It has been said that necessity knows no law. Forget it not, you +war-profiteers who would corner the world’s necessities. Remember that +a cornered animal is dangerous, and a cornered necessity has hoofs and +horns. + +There is a disease that has no name among the doctors--the disease of +colossal possessions. Its symptoms are a voracious appetite for more +possessions, and a phobia lest possessions should be lost. It is worse +than neuralgia and indigestion combined to disturb the rest of the +victim. + +I long to see a hundred million and more people living in peace and +plenty in America. + +Fanatics prattle about the confiscation of great fortunes. I do not +care so much what you do with your fortunes. But I care much what you +do with your land and your food, and I care more what you do with your +men and women and little children. + +Do not get into a panic, I pray you. A panic is worse than a quicksand +to get into. Keep calm. The country is in no danger, if it does not +lose its head. + + + + + LETTER XII + + LEVEL HEADS + + + _May 15, 1917._ + +DO not get excited, you Americans. If you keep your heads, you will +come through this all right. If you lose your heads, you may lose much +besides--you may lose more than you can win back in a hundred years. + +I am not excited. I have not lost my head. (Yes, I still have a head, +and hands and feet. If I should try to live out here without hands +and feet, the adjustment to that unaccustomed condition would have +a reactionary effect upon my head. I am not experimenting in the +elimination of my members.) + +You see a country now, Russia, that is making the experiment of living +without its head. No nation can continue as a nation without a head, +and a level one. Even the most extremely republican, democratic, +socialistic, or any other kind of a nation must have a head. A +completely anarchistic aggregation of people could not be called a +nation. Its land would be only a geographical section populated with +units, and such units unrelated to other units might as well be ciphers. + +Do not be impatient because I write seldom at present. I am rather +busy. I shall always come when I have something that must be said. + +A change is coming in America. Quite a change has already come about, +has it not?[2] + +This country is great, this country is strong, this country is +adaptable. It can adjust itself to change. The people of this country +have not been slaves for a long time. The people of Russia have been so +many kinds of slaves that their reaction to freedom is unexpected by a +free world. Wait! Do not lose your heads about this matter. + + +I do not object to there being a few persons who know that I am writing +with you again. They cannot affect me, save to encourage me with their +interest. + + +FOOTNOTES: + +[Footnote 2: It was about this time, if I remember rightly, that many +of our wealthy men began working for the government at one dollar a +year.] + + + + + LETTER XIII + + TREES AND BRICK WALLS + + + _May 16, 1917._ + +YOU fear lest the dismal prophecies of world-disaster, of cataclysm, +of the destruction of half the human race which you hear from many +sources, may tend to discourage the world. + +Remember that hope springs eternal in the human breast. And if the +minds of men are familiar with the idea of cataclysm, they will more +readily adjust themselves to lesser changes. + +Read the Old Testament. The most dismal prophecies were not verified, +but changes came. + +Some of the “independent ministers” of America are more violent than +Jeremiah. But they help indirectly--in accustoming the minds of men to +the idea of change. + +If panics come--and they may--refuse to be panic-stricken. + +If violence comes--and it may--refuse to be violent. + +If discouragements come--and they will--refuse to be discouraged. + +When your brains become over-heated, look steadily at the trees. They +will quiet you. If there are no trees in your neighborhood--why, look +at a brick wall in moments of excitement. A brick wall is a soothing +spectacle. It stands steady, unless moved from without. + + + + + LETTER XIV + + INVISIBLE ARMIES + + + _May 23, 1917._ + +MANY of the soldiers out here who have become fully awake and +self-conscious are striving to bring about those ends for which they +gave their lives on earth. There are thus soldiers working on both +sides of the war and on this side of the veil. Immediately after the +change many of them fight each other; but they soon learn that they can +do more effective work by giving attention to their comrades in the +flesh. They can soothe and inspire and instruct. + +We are forming an army out here. There is no lack of recruits. America +must be saved, and few of you know how much America has to be saved +from. But we know--we who have watched the world for the last two years +and three-quarters. + +It is not so terrible to die. It is really far more terrible to be born. + +The army that we are recruiting here is made up of men of all ages--all +ages in this life, I mean. Yes, there are women also in our army. There +are some veterans of the Civil War and veterans of the War with Spain. +Over the regiments and divisions of this army there are commanders, +as over the armies of earth. Otherwise the work would lack unity of +purpose. Ours is mostly a volunteer army, though conscription is not +unknown among us. + +You wonder what I mean? Do you not suppose that we can call a soul from +a useless occupation and give him useful labor? We can and do, daily. + +We have even recruited largely from the old and native Americans, the +red skinned hunters and warriors who remain in such large numbers in +the neighborhood of the earth. There is work which they only can do. +There are many kinds of work and a great variety of workers. + +I come and go, from coast to coast. I know what is doing on the shores +of the Pacific, in the Atlantic States, on the Gulf of Mexico, and +the Middle and Rocky Mountain States are familiar ground to me. I am +renewing my youth in this period of activity. I am working for my +country. I am in training, too. + +Why do you smile? There is a training of the mind and the will that is +more effective than any training of the physical body--quicker and more +effective. Then too the astral body can be trained to a high degree of +efficiency and elasticity. Surely I need not tell you this. + +And I am training others. We old fellows can be very useful in a time +like this. I am glad now that I came out _when_ I did, that I went +through my novitiate while the world was still at peace and there was +leisure for many things which now I should not have time for. I had a +delightful holiday. I hunted through the wilds of the invisible, and +fished in the waters of space; but now I am back at my work again. + + + + + LETTER XV + + THE WEAKEST LINK + + + _June 2, 1917._ + +THERE are in the archives of the Masters of Wisdom certain data +relative to the past and future of this country which would make +interesting reading could they be published in the newspapers at this +time of national crisis. + +America is aware of her mission of democracy; but she is not aware +of another mission equally potent--that of making the world safe for +spiritual culture. I do not mean religion, as the word is ordinarily +used; but I mean the culture of the spirit of love--such ideas of love +as the world has inadequately grasped from the teachings of Jesus +of Nazareth, grasped and let fall again because those ideas were too +warm to be comfortably held by hands cooled in the material labors of +selfishness. + +America has laid up for herself in the regions beyond the physical a +debt--an obligation that is not by any means a treasure in heaven, but +which, when the debt is paid, may be a real spiritual treasure. I refer +to the armies of souls who once occupied this land as free owners, and +who were expelled and disinherited by the expanding civilization which +grew up in the place of wigwam and hunting-ground. + +Those souls, many of them, desire to return. Many have already +returned, and unless some way is open for them to live again the free +life to which they were accustomed in the past, they will tend to +become a destructive force. They cannot be eliminated so easily now, +when they wear white bodies and claim citizenship with you. They are +scattered from shore to shore of this wide land. You can tell them +by their eagle eyes and their high cheek bones, by their free gait +and their love of freedom. They are hard to restrain in factory and +counting-house. They are clerks with a difference and laborers with a +dream. Many of them have found entrance into the sun-lighted world as +the children of European immigrants, for they find it easier to enter +the blood of certain other races than the blood of the Anglo-Saxon, for +all the Anglo-Saxon love of freedom. + +A time may come when these now foreign-blooded primitive Americans will +instinctively rebel against the restraining influences that have held +them, when they will seek to live over again the old life of nature, +even though they have to take it as the kingdom of heaven is said to +have been taken. + +There is coming a time when love will be needed in this land as it has +never been needed before, when “live and let live” must become a law as +well as a phrase. Those who long for freedom with Nature can be given +that freedom. Conditions may be hard in the great cities. + +I am not trying to instill fear into the American heart. On the +contrary, I am trying to insure you against fear. + +Not long could the wheels of civilization stop turning. But they could +stop--for a wink of the Cosmic Eye. + +America is going to be saved, and saved in the hour of her greatest +danger. What will her greatest danger be? You must think that out for +yourself. + +Learn to see through the eye of the Planetary Spirit. Your view is too +narrow. Where your library stands on shelves is for you the centre +of things; but the centre of things is in the heart, and hearts are +everywhere. If you think about the race and not about yourself, your +heart will be magnified; you will see with the eyes of the heart, and +he who sees with the eyes of the heart is wiser than historians or +intellectual prophets. + +The world must be made safe for love. All men must be provided for in +the scheme of the future, all men and women and little children. It +is not safe to disregard any, for a chain is as strong as its weakest +link, and every link must be made strong. + + + + + LETTER XVI + + A COUNCIL IN THE FOREST + + +ONE night, to repose my soul from the labors I had undertaken, I +retired to a pine forest upon the earth, in one of the New England +States. Thinking to be alone, I had sought the place; but no sooner +had I drifted into meditation than a strange sound fell upon my ears. +It was not like the sounds of earth, it was more subtle yet more +penetrating; and I knew that I was listening to a song (if you may call +it a song) by some of my fellow sojourners in the region beyond the +sunlight. + +Suddenly with a rush they leaped past me into the clearing, and forming +in a circle, they waited. Then I saw a light that was not of earthly +origin, the light of a campfire, and I knew that I had been surprised +by a band of Indians who were preparing to hold some rite of their old +religion. + +Though I had not been invited to their ceremony, neither had I invited +them to intrude upon my contemplation, so I remained and watched them. + +(Yes, there is less secrecy out here, for the reason that there is +greater understanding and greater tolerance.) + +Soon I was looking on at a strange dance. All in a circle they swung +round and round the blazing fire, singing and leaping. I did not know +the meaning of the words they sang; but I could read their minds by the +thought-images they formed, and I knew that they were celebrating the +date--reached by what lunar reckoning I knew not--of some great Indian +massacre in which they had taken part a hundred or two hundred years +ago. + +And the impulse of their dance, the motive power of it, was hatred of +the white man who had scattered them and driven them away from their +old hunting grounds. + +Shocked, yet fascinated by this inner glimpse at the souls of the +American aborigines, I watched them. + +Though I am not skilled in magic rituals, I soon perceived that there +was form and method in this dance, method and form and a hostile +purpose. + +They were, by exciting themselves and by fixity of thought, trying to +excite a scattered company of men in these United States--men of a low +grade of intellect but of psychic temperament--to deeds of violence and +destruction. + +“So that is the way they do it!” I thought. + +Then I drew a veil around my thoughts, that they might not be perceived +by the beings before me. Yes, I can do that, and so can many men upon +the earth. + +I could smell the keen fresh odors of the pine grove, and I could feel +the rising wind as it swept across the clearing; for the wind seemed to +respond to their call and to offer its forces to them. You must know +that the elements are impersonal, though semi-personalities inhabit +them, and that the elements _and_ these semi-personalities can be +used and guided, for purposes good or evil, by any being who has gained +that peculiar power in one or many lives. + +And looking off in the distance, I could see that the wind as it swept +along carried the thoughts and passions of these long dead men, these +souls that by reason of their downward tendencies had not broken away +from the attraction of matter, the astral gravitation that makes so +many souls earth-bound. + +Still looking off and projecting my consciousness in a way I have +learned to do, I saw the influence of this magic ritual of revenge +and menace as it touched the minds of men far scattered. I saw +their thoughts take on suddenly the tinge of hatred, hatred for the +civilization in which they had failed to realize their personal desires. + +And I knew that on that night and on the morrow, and at intervals for +many days, deeds of violence would be committed, that property would be +destroyed, and men of order threatened. + +My heart was sad, for I had not understood before how real was the +danger to my country in these times of crisis from the karma the old +settlers had made. Of course they believed they were doing right in +ridding themselves and their adopted land from the simple but complex +natives, whose civilization was older than the civilization of Europe, +and who had loved this land as only those can love a land who have +known the freedom of its spaces. + +When the magic dance was over, and one by one and two by two the +communicants slipped away among the shadows, I strode forward into +the circle to have speech with any who should willingly respond to my +desire for acquaintanceship. + +Suddenly I found myself face to face with a majestic chieftain, wearing +one of those long feather bonnets whose every feather marks some deed +of daring or achievement. (What a splendid custom was that! What an +incentive to action! Truly among the red men, deeds won a feather in +the cap.) + +His face was like that of a hawk, and his eyes were bright with an +inner fire, that intensity of feeling and thought commingled which +marks the leader and master of men and him alone. + +And I said to him in the forms of thought, for I knew no word of his +old language: + +“I have been an unintentional witness to your ceremony this evening. +Will you enlighten me further as to its purpose? for I see that it was +directed towards the land of breathing men.” + +With a sweep of his authoritative arm he dismissed the few of his +companions who had not already moved away among the trees, and we two +were alone together. + +“I come as a friend,” I said, seeing that he hesitated. + +And the word was true; for I saw that whatever harm he mistakenly +sought to accomplish, in his soul was the consciousness of justice, +that fundamental balance between right and wrong, that proposition +of law, which when native in the mind gives it dignity and attracts +respect. This was no dabbler in aboriginal and nasty sorcery, but a +kind of priest of retribution, a tribal demi-god who might perhaps some +day be made constructive and not destructive, an instrument of the +great Genius of America of which I have spoken in a former letter, the +Weaver of Destiny who has our land in charge. + +We measured each other with the eyes, and I cast aside the veil that I +had before drawn around my thoughts, that he might see me mind to mind +and realize that I respected and to a degree understood him. + +“You have seen what you have seen,” he observed. + +“And you do not resent my presence?” + +“No.” + +The fresh odor of the pine grove was keen in my senses, and my +new-found companion threw back his head with a splendid motion as if to +drink it in. + +“Freedom is good,” he said, “and the land was ours.” + +So I perceived that by excusing himself and his associates he had +perceived that I accused them. Then I knew that I could really commune +with him mind to mind, and I was glad; for I ever seek to extend the +range of my knowledge and to form acquaintance with those of sturdy +will. + +“But the land is free to all the world,” I said, “to you and to me, and +to those of both our races.” + +“We do not see it so,” was his reply. + +“But,” I insisted, “are we not now, you and I, enjoying it in freedom?” + +It is difficult to translate in words the rapid give and take of our +thoughts, the pictures that flashed back and forth between us, as I +strove with kindliness and will to make him understand that the welfare +of his race did not call for the destruction of mine. + +I told him--and the idea was so new to him that, lacking words, I had +to draw my story on the canvas of thought in the minutest detail--how +the soul that leaves the earth for a time returns to it in another +form. And I explained how hundreds upon hundreds of his people, and the +most advanced among them, had already come back in material form to +that America they had loved before, that they wore white bodies, and +could only be distinguished from other white men by the keenness of +their eyes, their gait, and certain peculiarities of speech and manner. + +He followed my story with astonished, almost painful, intensity; for he +knew, with that inner knowledge which on this side of life is almost +impossible to deceive, that I spoke honestly and believed that which I +told him. + +“And do you not deceive yourself?” was his inevitable question. + +Then I told him of those recent and former lives of my own which I most +vividly remember, and cited proofs that I did not deceive myself. + +“But what a life is that of the white man for one of my people?” he +demanded. + +Then he flashed me picture after picture of the simple white man’s +life in America, the schoolhouse with the choking-hot stove and the +bad air, the house and home with closed doors and windows, the +“meeting-house” where a droning or a noisy preacher prated of things he +did not understand, to others who believed or did not believe that they +believed him. He held up before me as for ridicule the clothing of the +white man in the lower walks of life, the confining and uncomfortable +shoes, the binding trousers, the ugly hat that makes bald the head, and +the collar. The one he pictured was a paper collar, soiled and wilted +at the edges. + +Then he showed me--as if to prove the breadth of his observations--an +office in a city, with the clerks seated upon stools and bent with +aching backs over ledgers that contained figures, figures, long lines +of figures that were the symbols of the white man’s wampum, which +seemed so trivial when made the principal occupation of a soul that +had rejoiced in the red man’s forest. + +“And is it for this that they come back to their native land?” he asked. + +“But the soul must gain all experience,” I said. + +The idea seemed new to him, and he pondered it with knitted brows. + +“Why should the soul gain all experience?” he asked. + +“That it may return to its God rich in knowledge,” I replied. + +“Its God.” At that thought the strange eyes of him lighted, though his +face remained immobile. + +“Yes,” I said, “for your God and my God are both God.” + +“There are many gods,” he replied. “There is the Great Spirit, and +there are the others.” + +“In the centre of each of them,” I assured him, “there is a spot, a +core of the heart that is the same in all, that exists everywhere, and +in every heart is one, that knows no division; and that centre is also +in your heart and mine and in that of our respective Gods.” + +“Did you learn that in one of those hot schoolhouses?” he asked. + +“No. I did not learn it even when I was an old man upon the earth, +but after I came out here. On earth I rather prided myself on my +separateness.” + +“Then one can learn new religions out here?” he asked, in surprise. + +“If one finds a teacher,” I replied. + +“But what need is there of _new_ religions?” + +“There is,” I said, “in the core of every religion also that central +spot where all are one. And there is in all races,” I pursued, for I +saw that he watched with half-belief, “there is in all races a core +of unity. The red man is the brother and not the permanent enemy of +the white man. So why should you injure the descendants of those who +followed what they believed to be right in extending their holdings in +this land long ago?” + +“But I was not seeking to injure them for injury’s sake.” + +“Then I misunderstood the purpose of your magic song.” + +“Oh!” he exclaimed. “You caught the feeling of my children, who cannot +see beyond feeling. My purpose is only to destroy the present to make +way for the old life.” + +“But the present is always a stage,” I said, “on the highroad +that leads to the future. And my people reincarnated, and yours +reincarnated--or so many of them as are ready to go on--shall go on +together and in this land. They will form, with those who join them +from beyond the seas, a new race. And thanks to the labors of a few +among the white men who have studied and appreciated the traditions +and civilization of the red man and sought to save them from utter +obliteration, the old forest lore will become a part of the inheritance +of that new race which is to grow out of the union of yours and mine +and the others. And for a part of every year, when the life of the new +race is adjusted, the boys and girls and men and women will go out to +the wilds and enjoy the freedom of the tent and the society round the +campfire, and we shall be brothers--real blood-brothers--at last, and +all the old wounds shall be healed. Can you not recognize me as your +brother?” + +He nodded his head. + +“And will you not spread among your people the glad tidings of the new +race, in all of whose possessions they will share?” + +We stood long looking in each other’s eyes, and I told him more than I +could record here if I held the use of your pencil for many hours. In +the end he understood me. + +It is my belief that he will spread the story among his people, and +that one danger will be lessened thereby, to some degree, for the +children of the new race. + + + + + LETTER XVII + + THE IDEAL OF SUCCESS + + + _June 23, 1917._ + +PUT fear out of your hearts. The future will give you no greater +lessons than you can master. It is not well to know the future in +complete detail. Had the world known during the last ten years all it +would be obliged to suffer in this war, would it have made the progress +it has made in art, science and commerce? No. Every thought would have +been haunted. + +You may say that the weaker races (and the stronger ones) would have +made better preparation. But a part of this lesson has been not to +delay inevitable preparation, and to know in future that a nation +which idealizes war and is mostly army, has not cultivated that ideal +and that army solely for its own amusement. + +If you want to understand national life and individual life, you must +look for their dominating ideals. An ideal is a tendency. + +What is the dominating ideal of America? Summed in a word, it is +success, is it not? Now America is in a great war, and you may be sure +that she will leave nothing undone that can make for success in that +war, as she has left nothing undone that could make for success in +business. + +Take your own case. What are your dominating ideals and tendencies? You +would say, off-hand, work and study and intellectual companionship, +would you not? Very well. As to work, do not fear a future in which +good work is pretty sure of at least a living wage. Study? There will +always be books to feed your hunger for reading. Companionship? There +are too many lonely souls in the world for you ever to be lonely. + +What else? You lift your pencil and think.... That is about all, is it +not? + +Now let us return to America. America is not--has not been--a warlike +nation, except when threatened by injustice, to herself or others. Will +she lose this war? I think not. + +But there will be complexities regarding the end of this war. + +I want to refer to something I said in a recent letter, that we were +organizing on this side of the airy frontier for work for the future of +America. + +I have spoken of the Genius of this land, a composite entity you may +call it, if your imagination is not equal to the task of seeing that +you--all of you--are cells in the body of the Genius of America. + +Now the Genius of this land has glorious purposes, and she uses +you--all of you--for her purposes, as you use the cells of your body, +as you are using at this moment the aggregation of cells that form the +hand with which you hold your pencil. + +In registering yourselves at the call of your country, you are +affirming your acceptance of the office of cells in the great body of +her. Some of you she must sacrifice in the war for the welfare of the +whole, as every day cells die and are born in the body of man, the +microcosm. + +Extend the idea to the whole human race, and the figure will be still +more apt. The genius of the race is suffering now. The process will +ultimate in a more perfect health. + +You perhaps protest that many of those who are dying are the flower +of the race, the young, the fitted to survive. But do you not remember +that their souls survive? The essential part of them is not lost, but +set free for a greater work. Have you considered that earth-life may be +the dream, and the life after death the waking? Sages have considered +it before you, and accepted the possibility. + +Out here we are hopeful, and very busy. It is because I am so busy that +I come to you only occasionally. Do not hurry me, for I do not hurry +you. + +We have problems to solve out here. As I have said, one of our problems +is the great number of Indian souls, red men souls, who went out of +life with resentment and revenge in their hearts for the elimination of +their race by the white man in America. + +Somehow we must placate them, and enlist them on your side. Otherwise +they may be a dangerous element for the future. Some of them would like +to see your civilization destroyed, as theirs was destroyed, and a few +of them are strong enough to do real harm. + +The best way to make an enemy harmless is to understand his peculiar +qualities, to learn something from the frankness of his enmity, to turn +away evil by letting it go off at a tangent. But the Indian souls are +not famous for their frankness. Even with me they sometimes conceal +their resentment--deep, fundamental--at the “theft,” as they feel it, +of the land where they once roamed in freedom. + +I advise America to cultivate the free life of the open. I have advised +you in a former book that the old woodcraft should be resuscitated and +taught to the children. There may come a time when the rudiments of +this knowledge will be useful to many of you. + +Great changes are coming in the world, a period of adjustment to new +conditions. There is a restless element in all adjustment, and national +restlessness is like that of puberty; it needs to be minimized by +healthful outdoor play, or by work which masquerades as play. + +The future will take from the present those elements that are most +important for survival. + +Do not fear that we shall return to the Dark Ages. Oh, no. We are going +into a Light Age. It is only twilight now. + + + + + LETTER XVIII + + ORDER AND PROGRESS + + + _July 18, 1917._ + +OUR purpose is to make the changes that must come, come gradually. We +want to avoid sudden changes. + +You in the world have no faint idea of the influence and power we can +wield on our side. We can speak to the minds of men without their +knowing whence the ideas come. They think, when a sudden idea comes +into their minds, that they have evolved it; but _sudden_ ideas +generally come from outside. (I put one in your mind this morning, then +ran away before you could recognize me. Why did I run away? Because I +wanted you to use your own judgment.) + +Just at present we are trying to encourage America as to her +future--_her orderly and peaceful future_, after peace is declared +in Europe. + +You may as well know that there are many out here who are anxious about +the future of the world. All men do not cease to worry when they have +left their bodies. There are many here who think the world is going to +smash. They always had that fear in life whenever things seemed to go +wrong; and now they are no less inclined to accept every perplexity as +an omen of failure and confusion. + +All over America there are men and women--and many of them are in +pulpits and on platforms--who are croaking away about the destruction +of society following this war. Bless your troubled hearts! Society is +not going to be destroyed. Some elements in society will be gradually +done away with, and good riddance to them! But society has made too +great advance, in mechanical and intellectual ways, to permit its +structure to be pulled from beneath its feet. + +Do not worry. Watch out, but do not worry. As Abraham Lincoln once +prevented this country from being territorially divided and thus +weakened, so he and others are now working to prevent a spiritual +division that would be even more disastrous. + +No, we are not going to see your useful inventions and your structures +that the future has need of, cast into the rubbish heap by reckless +violence and extravagance. What is useful must be conserved. What is +useless for the future can be made over into something useful. + +Humanity has not been in the habit of taking sudden jumps. It has put +one foot regularly before the other, and gone ahead rather steadily. +The way of man in the past has been to improve and make over, rather +than suddenly to discard its institutions, or even its garments. +Only that which is really worn out is cast away. And our financial +system, and our social system in general, will be improved and _not +discarded_. Did you think we were going back to wampum? Oh, no! + +There _is_ a strong pull from this side, and from those who +inhabited your continent, to simplify the life in America. But America +is no longer isolate. She has now taken her place in the republic of +nations. + +Some of the souls who used to be American Indians would like to see +America resume wigwams and campfires, because those souls want to come +back, and they dread the complexity of modern American life. But there +are teachers here--and some of them red teachers--who can instruct the +souls behindhand in adaptability. + +I have told you that there is an influence tending to draw America +backward. But I have not told you to be panicky regarding the fact. +There are reactionaries--even in your world. + +The influence from this side is subtle. But the majority here who +desire to lead the world, desire to lead it forward and not back. +_The world will go forward._ + +Yes, the souls you call the “departed” are organizing themselves. They +realize that their influence can be more effective if it has a purpose +and a program. For a time after the war began there was great confusion +out here, but things are becoming more orderly. Minds are becoming +more united. Many of us who have common sense and some measure of +political judgment give most of our time to lecturing here and there, +wherever we can draw a crowd together. That is one reason why you have +seen me so seldom of late. I have been busier than ever before. Knowing +that a time is coming soon when I can rest from my present labors, I am +using my strength as fast as I generate it. For those whom I convince +that America and other countries are going forward--_must_ go +forward to greater activity--seek to convince others in their turn. +No lecturer on earth ever had so busy a month as I have had this last +month. I have spoken to hundreds several times every day, going from +place to place, from State to State, from city to city. I can speak in +San Francisco in the morning, in New York at noon, in New Orleans at +two o’clock, in Butte, Montana, in the evening. I am not limited to +railway time-tables, nor do I pay my fare. + +Believe me, we are going to save America, and we are going to save the +world. For the Masters are behind us, and they will not let the world +be destroyed. + +I should not like you to know how near it has been to destruction more +than once during the last three years. But the forces of premeditated +evil against which we fought so long have been scattered now, and +though they have not been destroyed, their effect has been greatly +lessened. What we have reason to fear now is the unwisdom of those who +believe they wish good to the world--_the unwisdom of fanatics and +agitators and fuss-budgets_ of all sorts, stirring up confusion and +darkening counsel with their unpractical and conflicting ideas. + +Order, order, order! That is what the world must strive for in the +period of reaction which will follow this war. The reaction must be +reckoned with; but it will be only a brief rest of overwearied hearts, +who will again begin building. + +It is in that building period that I hope for America, because she will +be less tired than the other members of the great world brotherhood. +But in America at that time there will be a danger. I tell you that, +lest you be taken unawares and relax your attention. + +Be watchful, but not over-anxious. + +And trust the Masters of Life somehow to lead you through. + + + + + LETTER XIX + + THE FEDERATION OF NATIONS + + + _August 9, 1917._ + +THE time has now come for America to get out into the world and take +her place in the federation of nations. Let her unite with England in a +strong bond, and thereby she can keep the peace of the world. + +The isolation of America in the past has been in line with her destiny; +it was necessary for her to develop to her present state of power +without interruptions, or the influence of international complications +upon her statesmen. Free and alone, she has not had to become a part +of the great and creaking machine of international diplomacy and +intrigue. But now she is independent, and, politically speaking, +her character is formed. You may say that America has attained her +majority, and is entitled to vote in the councils and elections of the +world. + +She has much to do for both France and England, as they have both +done so much for her in the past. They have formed her culture and +influenced her spirit; now she will influence their spirit. + +When you read the other day of the work which our soldiers are doing in +France, helping in many little ways in the villages and on the farms, +your heart glowed with pleasure; you remembered what I said to you +before America came into the war, that our men were to go to France and +to work, work, work for the upbuilding of France. + +That is only the beginning. More and more will our men work over +there, during and after war. + +Soon there will come a call for a new kind of work--new for us. + +There is deep meaning in this bringing together of the nations for a +common cause. From that, there is only a step to the bringing together +of _all_ nations for _one_ cause. + +The force of revolt in the world must spend itself, as the force of +race hatred has spent itself--for it is already spent. The continuation +of the war will be practically without the rage of the beginning. We go +on because it is our job, and even in New York now there is no longer +the fierceness of two years ago. And in England it is lessened, and +in France it is lessened, and in Germany it is lessened. War has now +become a task like any other, to be gone through with. When it no +longer seems worth while, it will stop. + +The question of America’s part in the federation of states interests me +now. + + + + + LETTER XX + + THE NEW IDEAL + + + _August 19, 1917._ + +SINCE Germany evolved her idea of flamboyant nationalism and tried +to foist it upon the world in imperial fashion, the world has grown +skeptical of the national fetish. It will believe in the good +intentions of no nation or race that flaunts its perfections in the +face of friend or enemy. + +America, as she grows more and more sure of her high destiny, must also +grow more modest. She must realize herself as one of the sister states +in the great commonwealth of nations, and the eagle will take lessons +in voice culture. As a quiet voice can make itself heard in a medley +of noises where a screaming voice would be inaudible, so must America’s +voice become deep and quiet. + +She is paying for her place in the councils of the world. Let her voice +be heard by reason of its dignified and restrained accents. + +A great change is taking place in Europe, in its conception of the +American character. Hitherto France has known the American tourist, +and the uprooted American who lived there in preference to his own +country. Now France is learning something about the American man in his +workaday, playaday, fighting and loving, living and dying sublimity. +She has rubbed her eyes as she watched him, wondering if she were +awake. She has recognized a new type. She does not understand it yet, +but she wants to understand it. There is a new and disturbing warmth +now at the heart of France for this new brother from across the seas. +She sees (for she is subtle) the crudity of him as measured by her more +artificial standards. But she sees also the grandeur and chivalry of +him, as compared with her old idea of the foreigner. + +Ah, America and Americans! You are on trial now in the courts of the +world’s judgment as you have never been before. My heart is aglow as +I see our boys go out into the larger world, carrying with them the +clear outdoor spirit of the American plains and woodlands. When I see +the eyes of the sublime and pain-chastened French grow deep and warm as +they rest upon our boys, I am so proud of them! I forget that I also +am uprooted, having left the land of my birth for the regions beyond +death. + +In the councils at the ending of the war and after the war, may the +modesty of greatness restrain America from any suggestion to France or +England that she saved them from destruction. I clasp my hands--to you +they would be shadowy hands--together with excess of emotion, as I pray +for the guidance of America in the councils that are to come. + +Modesty--let that be the watchword. + +The soul of France is aflame with gratitude, the soul of France is +aflame with love. The hearts of the French people in the night grow +warm and their eyes grow wet as they whisper to themselves, “Les +Américains! Les Américains!” + +Oh, be mindful of the love you have won! + +I would die all over again a thousand times rather than see my +Americans disappoint their French brethren in this crisis of the +world’s life. + +You wonder why I say nothing of England? Ah! England knows you already. +England has known you long. You cannot surprise England. She knows you +as the mother knows her son or daughter; but to the French you are a +mystery, a mystery that has come to help, an angel in a khaki shirt and +a slouch hat and a strange voice. + +Don’t you understand? + +She prays for you. She would pray to you if she were not so shy in her +love. There is a new strange wonder in her eyes, and a sweet thrill all +over her. + +Oh, exalt the brotherhood of nations--that never before realized ideal! + +You cannot take away from a boy who has grown up in a free world the +deep-rooted idea that America is and ever must be free. In years gone +by the sons of this soil have died for freedom, freedom for themselves, +freedom for the black man. Now they fight and die for the freedom of +the world. + +Do you know what it means to be free? Only the self-restrained man is +free, for lawlessness is not freedom. Lawlessness is always in leash to +passions tyrannical. + +In the new America that I see just over the edge of the horizon +(for my eye reaches farther than yours), there will be room for the +fullest development of the individual idea, while the idea of social +responsibility will make it stable. Hitherto individuality has run +rampant. Witness the hoarding of food by a few, while many go without. +Watch the clash and struggle of each interest to take some advantage +for itself out of this tragic opportunity. + +Before the war is ended the hearts of men must work in harness with +their minds. The old generation is dying off, the generation whose +initiative girdled the continent with railroads, spurred by the hope +of personal gain. The new men who will follow the old “captains of +industry” will glimpse a new ideal. + +I am told by one who knows more than I that the men who have made +industrial America, by their foresight and initiative, were guided and +inspired by Beings who used them and their ambitions for world purposes +beyond their comprehension. + + + + + LETTER XXI + + A RAMBLING TALK + + + _November 15, 1917._ + +I AM not in a literary mood to-night, so I may talk in a rambling way. + +I wonder if you know the seriousness of the enterprise which America +has undertaken. You think you do. But before the matter is all threshed +out at the end you may have surprises in store. + +Do not worry about your things in London. London is large, and a good +many bombs can fall without destroying any great portion of it. + +Yes, I say emphatically again what I said some two years and a half +ago, that there will be internal troubles in Germany--and in other +places, too. The world is going to be made over. Do not be afraid. The +making over of the world will not hurt you. + +Humanity is so afraid of change! The race has gone through many +changes--some of them in prehistoric times--more dramatic than the +present change. Humanity has a long history, and little of it is +recorded in books that you can read. + +Yes, the world will be united, and the world will be cut up. That +sounds like a paradox, perhaps. + +As I am resting to-night, I may take the liberty of being disconnected. +You ought always to live in a quiet place like this, a little remote +from the centre of things. You do not belong in the bustle and crowd +downtown, either in New York or any other large city. All those who +have developed their inner senses should live a little apart. That +does not mean that they should all become hermits; but they should live +in the outskirts. When you feel a desire for the crowd you can go down +into it. + +Tell ---------- not to worry because this book is going slowly. You are +not working against time. The world will go on, and you will go with +it. Make no mistake about that. The world is going very fast. All these +new “psychic” books are an evidence that the world is going fast. A few +years ago no publisher would have issued them. + +I do not wonder that your head swims a little. + +You have been impressed by “losing” so many personal friends since +the war began, friends whose deaths seemed unconnected with the war. +But they are of those who could not adjust to the new world that is +coming. Their Silent Watchers are taking them out. You each have a +Silent Watcher, a something, a part of you that is above and beyond +you, yet which is the most real of all the parts of you. + +The Watchers of the universe are watching more intently than usual. +Your own is watching you as well as the world. It will give you notice +when any important action is necessary. + +It seems as if the world had adjusted itself to the idea that the dead +_may_ speak with the living. But that is only the beginning of +knowledge. + +When the worst of the war is over, and men begin to adapt themselves +to peace, they will try to know themselves. And they will discover +that their bodies and souls are only parts of them, that they exist on +as many planes of being as there are planes of matter and of subtler +substance, and that each of these selves is as real as the personality +they see in the mirror. They will learn to form links between them, to +build bridges of communication. Finally they will become consciously +complete beings. + +Joy is coming back to the world some day, such joy as the world has +never known. You will one day be glad to be alive again, and I mean all +of you. + +Do not fret because you have to remain in America. At the moment +America is a good place in which to be. The world is opening its +eyes at the efficiency of America. She is setting an example that +her friends will be ashamed not to follow. Some day she will set the +highest example of all. + + + + + LETTER XXII + + THE LEVER OF WORLD UNITY + + + _November 19, 1917._ + +DO you not see that the unifying influence of America is already being +felt in the war? Do you not see how America, through the President of +the United States, is drawing the Allies together? That is her destiny, +to assemble all nations in a brotherhood of democratic freedom and +mutual helpfulness. This demand of President Wilson for a council, for +unified action in prosecuting the war, is one of the most significant +events in history. For the first time a group of friendly nations +may really work as one, putting aside all personal jealousies and +fears--for a great world end. + +It is the lever of world unity which shall lift the burden of +wastefulness that heretofore has cost the world half the fruits of its +labor. + +Oh, nations of Europe, do not fear the great free land across the +waters! She wants nothing of you, save now the privilege of helping you +to save yourselves, and in the future to work with you for the ideals +that will make you all strong. + +The Anglo-Saxon race must again be like one family, though in two +houses; but bye and bye, when America shall have amalgamated her +foreign residents with herself in one indissoluble race, she will still +be your sister, O Britain! and you two shall counsel together for the +further enlightening of the world. + +Sometimes I go high in the etheric regions and look down upon the +earth, so high that the horizons bound one hemi-sphere after another. +The horizons of time are also thus expanded, and I see ahead of and +behind the present hour. I see the causes that have brought the world +to its present _impasse_. You will have to remove the wall that +separates you from the age of enlightened brotherhood. + +You have read about the golden age of the past. Did you think it was a +fanciful story, to amuse children in the fire-light? I tell you it will +sometime be realized again, and on this earth--now rent by hatred and +war. + +You must retain all you have won from the mines of the earth and from +the activity of your own brains. Inventions and arts, they will all +have their place in the new age that is coming, and hitherto unimagined +art and science will add further to the glory and comfort of life. It +will be the fault of your own folly and blindness if you lose anything +of value to the soul. The soul needs matter as matter needs the soul. +Because we look forward to an age without hatred and wasteful division, +we do not look forward to an age of idleness and inertia. Limitless +will be the opportunities for genius, for talent, for ambition. + +The greatest aristocracy of earth is the aristocracy of mind and soul, +and mind and soul will be cultivated. The education of the future will +be not only practical but humanistic; nothing will be thrown away +that makes for beauty or for thought. The treasures of dead languages +will not be thrown into the dust-bin. After the labor necessary to +provide for the material wants of the world, time will be left for +art and beauty and scholarship, for social discussion and religious +exaltation. The mystic also will have his place. + +Three years ago I would not have dared to prophesy a _happy_ +outcome for this tragic fracas. More than two years ago I told you that +the battle had been won in the regions above the earth--won by the +powers of good, who labor for the welfare of mankind. How _can_ +you doubt? If the war had ended two years ago, the world might have +gone on more or less as it went before. But now it can never go back to +the old selfish ways. In the need that will follow the war the races +will help one another; they will turn to one another as brothers and +sisters turn. + +Never lose faith that out of this tragedy will come the guerdon of the +world’s desire. I see it, I live for it (for I live more vitally than +you); and that you may see and live for it also I struggle against the +lightness of my present body, that has a tendency to carry me away from +the dense regions where you suffer and pray, you men of earth. + +You who have followed me from those early days when I wrote you letters +from the lower astral world, describing as a traveller in a strange +country the things I had seen; you who followed me through the hells +of astral turmoil during the early months of the war, follow me yet a +little further. I will show you the way as it has been shown to me. +And you will walk in that way, though stumbling at first and groping +for the thread of purpose through the labyrinth of reconstruction, in +the days that shall be called days of peace. For perfect peace will +not come at once. You will have to work for it, as you have worked +for triumph in war. But if you have faith, you will ride the stormy +waters into the haven of a new earth. And a new heaven will spread +above the earth, for heaven is largely peopled from below; it recruits +its population from below. No new angels are being created now. The +outgoing Breath rests, and the indrawing Breath is about to begin. +You who have practised “yogi breathing” know how difficult it is to +hold the breath _out_ for more than a short time. It can only be +done by force of will. The tendency is to return, as the tendency in +the race is to return towards the Source from which it came. It is +therefore I say that you cannot retard, save for a little while, the +flow of the race-breath towards harmony and peace and love. + +This struggle of men with each other in the selfishness of separation +is like the struggle of the yogi not to inbreathe--the young and +inexperienced yogi; for the wise one breathes at stated intervals, and +knows when the period is full. + +The race knows. It will follow the law of the outflow and inflow. You +cannot prevent it. So yield yourselves to the current that would carry +you back to God. + +It will not be a hurried journey, for the inflowing breath is measured +too. There will be time for labor and for rest, and to gather flowers +by the way. + +Do you fear the return to God, however slow it may be? I who have +tasted death know there is nothing to fear; and I who have tasted the +new life tell you there is everything to hope. + + + + + LETTER XXIII + + THE STARS OF MAN’S DESTINY + + + _November 24, 1917._ + +HAS it occurred to you that the powers that have in charge the progress +of the world may be obliged to use methods repugnant to your desires, +in order to accomplish inevitable purposes at the time when they are +due? Man, by rebelling against the tendencies of cosmic progress, may +retard it--for a time; but when the wave rises high enough it will +carry him along against his will, and inevitable effects are produced +in spite of his rebellion. + +Take this war. The hour had struck on the world clock when races of +men should work together for a common purpose. They rebelled in their +fear that each would not get his share of world benefits; so the world +was attacked by a common enemy, and the races have _had_ to +unite for a common purpose, that of preserving civilization from the +destruction that threatens it. + +Could this war have been prevented? By prevision, yes. But no one with +influence enough to be heard respectfully had that prevision. Those who +stand high in the world’s regard have generally so concentrated upon +their individual work and their individual ambitions, that they have +lost the ability to see impersonally and to see the world as a whole. +Some can see as a whole the tendencies of their own country; few can +see the world tendency. + +And I tell you now that if, when this universal war is ended, the +races do not recognize the necessity to unite in a federation for the +good of all, there will be after forty years little left of all that +has been accomplished during that marvellous nineteenth century which +saw material progress equalling that of the preceding two thousand +years. + +Can man not see the stars of his destiny without being struck on the +head with a hammer? If man will not work for the good of the whole, +then the whole has to be threatened. It is so threatened now, if you +could see it. + + + + + LETTER XXIV + + MELANCHOLY + + + _December 23, 1917._ + +I WANT to write about melancholy, not the depression produced by bad +digestion or pressure on the nerves, but that cloud of darkness that +sometimes descends upon the most brilliant mind and the stoutest heart, +making them for a while useless for any purpose--except that of drawing +knowledge from the experience of melancholy itself. + +Not all sadness originates in the heart that is sad, and fear, the +basis of melancholy, may be suggested to a soul on earth by a soul +beyond the earth. You do not realize what a cloud of dissatisfied and +fearful souls this holocaust has let loose in the invisible regions; +they flock round the sensitive souls upon the earth, longing to “tell +their troubles,” longing for sympathy and help. They are no more +self-reliant than many in your world whose very presence depresses a +stronger fellow being. + +Now whenever you feel that cloud of melancholy, stop and ascertain +the cause. You have observed the workings of suggestion. If you +find nothing in your environment or circumstances to fill you +with hopelessness, would it not be safe to assume--unless you are +bilious--that the cloud gathered elsewhere and merely descended upon +you? + +The student who hopes some day--though maybe many lives in the +future--to achieve adeptship, may as well begin now to control and +direct his thoughts and feelings. + +You need not be melancholy unless you want to be. There are texts, +mantras, adages, even copy-book maxims you can recall and meditate +upon, that will drive away the worst fit of the blues. Here are a few: + +Pleasure and pain are opposite expressions of one force. + +I am a part of God, and no harm can overtake God. + +What is the truth hidden in this well of discontent? + +If I go deep enough into this midnight earth, I shall come out on the +other side where the sun shines. + +I was happy yesterday, and I am still I. + +A frightened dog will never scare away a robber. + +If all these ills befall me, it will be an exercise of power to conquer +them. + +--Not very profound, perhaps; but you can write better ones if you +wish. I am merely illustrating one process of shaking off the burden of +dread. + +Why should you men dread anything? Even death is only dreadful when you +are afraid of it. + +The Masters enjoy difficulties. They are the acid that tests the gold +of their mastership. + +And speaking from a lower plane, there is pleasure in doing any +difficult thing. Why, in the writing of a big novel there is more +actual work, mental and physical, than in overcoming some great +misfortune. It is less work to go out and overcome a threatened +misfortune than it is to write a short story. + +How anybody in good health and with even ordinary ability can yield to +melancholy is a question for a philosopher. + +I am not talking now of grief for dead friends, or for false friends, +which grief is far worse; but of the fear of some imaginary disaster +which in all probability will never happen. + +The surest way to attract disasters is to imagine them. You can create +almost anything if you imagine it strongly enough--even joy and courage. + +A Master once told me that the control and exorcism of melancholy was a +greater test of power than the control of desire. + +Both often come from outside, are suggested to the receptive, passive +mind. Now the Master entertains only those suggestions that can +strengthen his purposes. If you have a friend who makes you courageous +by his very presence, cultivate his society. If you have a friend who +makes you melancholy, either teach him better or get rid of him; send +him to a doctor. + +What is the use in our talking about occult power if we have not power +over our moods? Practise on moods. As an exercise, some time when you +are active, force yourself to be lazy. When you are lazy and not tired, +force yourself to be active. Natural fatigue should not be pressed too +far, it is a mere reaction; but indolence is not fatigue. It is in the +physical what melancholy is in the mental. + +As another exercise, when your mind circles round and round something, +switch it off as you would switch off an electric light. Turn and think +of something else. You can do it. + +And, by the way, one of the best cures for melancholy is an hour of +mathematical calculations. I defy anybody to be melancholy in the arms +of geometry or trigonometry. Why? You cannot think in mathematical +terms and of yourself at the same time. People always think of +themselves when they are melancholy. + +But you tell me that you became melancholy the other day in thinking +about a friend who had lost her job. Think again. By wondering what you +could do for this friend and whether you could afford it, you began to +fear.... Is it not so? + +You may be sad because a friend is in trouble, but you cannot be +melancholy for anybody but yourself. + +Another can make you melancholy by making you morbid and fearful. + +Our thoughts are so chained to our ego that it is difficult for +them to escape for long. But are you ever melancholy when creating +imaginatively a scene in a book? Could you be melancholy while figuring +the “polar elevation” of a planet, or computing one of those converse +“primary directions”? I see you smile. When you are engaged with +figures you forget yourself. Now take my advice. When auto-suggestion +is powerless to conquer melancholy, draw up an astrological figure in a +low latitude with that table of oblique ascensions that I saw you using +yesterday, and work out the converse primaries and the longitude of +Vulcan. + +You remind me that when on earth I had small interest in astrology. But +I am talking about mathematical calculations. + + + + + LETTER XXV + + COMPENSATORY PLAY + + + _February 1, 1918._ + +I HAVE looked in on you occasionally during the last few weeks, pleased +with your resting for a time. + +The ambitious and energetic are prone to underestimate the value of +occasional idleness. You cannot run even a machine all the time without +oil and rest. Neither can the most vigorous engineer-soul run its brain +and body too long without letting them cool. The farmer knows when to +let a field lie fallow. + +“After the war” it is to be hoped that the soldiers who have worked so +long at one labor--that of war--may be given a period of compensatory +play, doing nothing, before being replaced in the hive of industry. Let +them enjoy the breezes and the perfume of idleness for a little time; +the reaction from that rest will send them back into the workshops with +renewed desire for activity. If the world has to get along with less +for a few weeks, that will not hurt the world. + +In the years to come there will be more rest and recreation in +America. In Europe there is going to be some degree of fatigue after +this war, and America can easily hold her own if she carries a lower +steam-pressure. + +The idle hours are sometimes as valuable as those that are spent in +labor. It is in so-called idle hours that we meditate, get acquainted +with ourselves, build air castles, which are working-plans for our +edifice of the future. Day dreams are good. I had a day dream during +my life, and it was really the working-plan for the future I am +building now. I wanted to get back something I had lost, and I have got +it back. You wonder what it was? I do not mind telling you. In a former +life I went far along the road towards mastership. Then once upon a +time I slipped back a long way. My day dream was to recover that lost +ground, and I have recovered much of it out here. + +If I had not left the world with that day dream vivid in my +consciousness, I should not have made the progress and the recovery I +have made. + +I was talking the other day with an old friend--a very dear old +friend--who came out here a year or two ago, and she and I agreed that +the day dreams we had dreamed together were among the most valuable +products of our recent life. + +She is revelling in the recovery of her own lost ground, and she +will run me a good race as the years go on. Yes, one can race across +recovered ground of adeptship. + +My friend said laughingly the other day that she had made more plans +since coming out here than she could execute in a long while. + +“Take your time,” I advised, “in the execution. You have all eternity.” + +She looked at me in the old way I remember so well, and said: + +“Time may be made for slaves, but eternity is made for masters.” + +She too is glad that she came out. She had done one kind of work long +enough, and is now enjoying another. + +Is she helping me, you wonder? Well, no, unless you count the pleasure +of our renewed association as a help. Why should she help me, or I +her? Our work is our own. + +You in the world should help each other when you can; but out here we +of equal stature help each other by _being_. That is a good help, +though, the being together sometimes. + +What a wonderful expression, by the way, “being together”! What poetry! +Not working together, nor playing together, but simply being. You +must often have felt that joy when with a loved friend. Words are not +necessary for that enjoyment. Words often lessen the enjoyment by the +very effort of uttering them. Effortless being! Even the birds enjoy +it, and the rose could give you valuable secrets of that joy. + +In the world I have heard busybodies say of a beautiful woman that she +did nothing. What of it? A rose does not run a sewing-machine, or +write books. + +Joy is coming back to the world. It has been long absent. Being for its +own sake has taken on new meanings in the minds of those who are glad +to be still alive. + +To have passed through all the perils of a long war and still to “be” a +living man is something to make the soul wonder. + +The men who have fought in this war from the beginning should not be +crowded too hard when at last they can stretch their limbs in the +hammocks of peace. They have earned the right. As they spin their +soldier yarns, gaze at them with respect. They passed through the +shadow of death for you. That God has retained them among the active +cells of His body is because He has need of them still; but it does not +mean that they should go on working for you every minute. Suppose you +work for them for a while. When they are rested they will join you in +your labor. + +Last night I listened to two soldiers talking, and this is what they +said to each other: + +“What will you do, John, when it’s all over?” + +“I’ll lie in the bath tub an hour every morning, in the warm, soft, +soapy water; and in the afternoon I’ll call on one dear girl after +another, and drink tea, and listen to their talk. And what will you do?” + +“Oh, I’ll just look at my wife and hold her hand.” + +Idle talk, you think? That depends upon what you mean by idle talk. To +me that talk was immensely significant. + +Soon after our little skirmish with Spain I remember hearing an active +woman say of her husband that he had never been good for anything since +he came back from Cuba. + +“Well,” I said, “he was good for a lot in Cuba.” + +The Spanish-American war! A fly beside an elephant, as compared with +this war. + +And the German is tired, too. You may not have to overwork yourself to +keep up with him after the war. + + + + + LETTER XXVI + + THE AQUARIAN AGE + + + _February 2, 1918._ + +YOU have wondered why the Masters speak now of the interests of the +common man, while in former times they said little about them. But do +you not know that when the need for a thing is come, the work of the +Masters with the world is to urge the world in the direction of its +destiny? + +You have read of the iron age, the golden age, etc., and that the +golden age follows the iron. You may have wondered how two states so +utterly dissimilar could be juxtaposed. Now between the iron age and +the golden age there is a period of transition, a period short as +compared with one of the great ages, for example the longest one, the +golden, which is given as one million, seven hundred and twenty-eight +thousand years. + +I have not visited you this evening to announce that the golden age +is immediately at hand. Oh, no! But we approach the termination of a +minor cycle, and the period of transition from the present state of the +world to the next[3] will be of about one thousand years. That is to +say, this period of one thousand years will bring us to the middle of +what is called the Aquarian age, for the half of one of these lesser +Zodiacal periods is approximately of that length.[4] + +What is the Aquarian age? You know the humanitarian nature of Aquarius. +You also know the characteristics of the planet Uranus, to which +Aquarius is now attributed. Well, the inference is obvious. We shall +have an Aquarian world, and a world where things will go after the +manner of that strange and abrupt planet Uranus. + +The old-fashioned world is passing away, the Jupiterian world, and we +are entering upon a period of change, political, social, religious and +personal. There is going to be an attempt at a federation of states, a +federation of souls. Nothing but this war could have effected it--with +the suddenness characteristic of that mysterious planet Uranus. + +In the later Aquarian age the creative will of man will have such +scope as the world has not dreamed of. It will be set free from the +limitations which have held it. When all men are assured of a means of +livelihood, how free they will be in _mind_! The freedom of the +past in a free country like America is nothing like the freedom which +the new age will usher in. + +When education is really universal, the moral as well as the mental +will be trained, and new ideas will have room to develop in the +developing brain. + +Be not afraid, O world! Three years ago, even we who see far out here +had grave doubts for the future of your planet. But the great Masters +always told us that the world would pass through its period of trial, +still poised on its old axis, and that the _forces which make for +order would triumph over the forces which make for disorder_. Have +you not noticed in the psychic world a lessening of strain? Have you +not noticed an absence of the hostile and adverse beings that in the +early months of the war seemed to threaten the earth and you and all +men with a triumphant malice? That is a straw which shows the way of +“the winds that blow between the worlds.” + +I am glad you are a keen observer of psychic states. That faculty of +observation will be of use to you in the years that are to come. Those +who cannot adjust to new conditions will pass out for a time and return +later with the fresh outlook of children, to take up their experience +in the new age. + +There will be much rebellion in the beginning. Things are not so stable +as they _seemed_ four years ago. The war has proved that they were +not really stable. + +The wave of psychic research that is now sweeping across the world will +wear thin the veil between the visible and the invisible. More and +more men and women will live in two worlds at the same time; for the +two worlds occupy the same space, and their differences are differences +of consciousness, of vibration, the latter including a difference in +states of matter. + +Men will grow more magnetic under the influences that will play upon +them. They will affect each other more and more, and that is one reason +why greater freedom will be necessary. With the greater sensitiveness +which the new time will bring, it will be more difficult for large +families to live together a common life. While the tendency is for +all mankind to be one family in sympathy, more and more it will be +recognized that each man requires privacy for his best development. The +tyranny of the family will give place to freedom _in_ the family. +Strip family life of its tyranny and it may be very charming. + +The sensitive and highly charged beings of the new age would explode +if they should be obliged to sit every evening round the family +“centre-table,” listening to the maunderings of the least progressive +among them, who by reason of greater age assumed the right to lay down +the law. This does not mean that children will not honor their parents; +but under the new dispensation parents will honor their children’s need +for the individual life, and will give it to them--thereby securing +their own freedom. + +The freedom of the later Aquarian age will be manifest in the mind. +“Heresy” will cease to exist; the word will become obsolete. + +The sin against the Holy Ghost will be understood as the attempt to +enchain the will of another. + +Great friendliness will result from this mutual tolerance. We hate only +those whom we fear, and in a tolerant world there will be few seeds of +hatred. + +All men will study; the school is only the first stage of study. When +man becomes his own schoolmaster he makes great strides. + +What you know of art, music and literature can give you but a vague +idea of what these arts will become in the age that is to follow. Take +the catchwords of the immediate past, impressionism, for example. It +will be applied to all the arts. + +Science is only in its swaddling-clothes. Aquarius is a sign of +air, the old books tell us, and the air holds many secrets which +you must take for your own, not only secrets of transportation but +psychological secrets. The airplane and psychical research grew up +together. + +You have not taken the last redoubt of electricity. That also has +treasures for you. When you can draw _that_ from the air where it +hides from you and laughs, you will have little need of coal, and the +miners can leave the bowels of the earth and play in the sunshine of +the heights. + +Inventions! I see in the “pattern world” I told you about in my first +book many things that would puzzle you down here. New fabrics will +be worn before many years, and the patient silkworm will not be the +aristocrat it now is. + +The human ego is coming into its own. When it loses selfishness it will +find itself. That is not a paradox for its own sake, but the statement +of a psychological fact. + +The seeming chaos will take form, and in it you will find new +beauties. I will not conceal from you the knowledge that many will use +the word chaos during the reconstruction period. But be at peace. The +formless shall take on form. The clairvoyance that is developing in man +will help him to see, where the eyes of his old faith would have been +blind. He will trust the future and trust his brother, and will not be +deceived. The intuition of the soul will point man to the substance +which he needs for his well-being. Behind and within the air is the +ether, which is substance, which is God. And man will take it for +his uses, with the consent of God, who joys in giving Himself to His +children. + +As I said before, the Masters urge the world along in the direction +of its destiny; but they are too wise to hurry it. They see the face +of the cosmic clock, and they wake the world at the hour of the new +sunrise. We are blest in being their servants. + + +FOOTNOTES: + +[Footnote 3: Still far short of the golden age, probably.--E. B.] + +[Footnote 4: This does not correspond exactly with the popular Hindoo +reckoning. But automatic writings are what they are. I can cut out +repetitions, etc., but I cannot re-write, add to, or distort.--E. B.] + + + + + LETTER XXVII + + THE WATCHERS + + + _February 3, 1918._ + +I STOOD one day before a great soul that had renounced the rest in +heaven, and questioned him as to the work that called us loudest. What +do you think he said? + +“_Labor with those who fear for the future._” + +“Are there so many, then, who look forward with apprehension?” I asked. + +“All those who think and see and have responsibilities are +apprehensive,” he replied. + +Then I wandered here and there about America, looking in upon all sorts +of men and a few women. And I read in their minds a great uncertainty. + +“Sufficient unto the day is the evil thereof,” I thought so intensely +_at_ them that many responded with a hopeful smile. + +Yes, I can win response from many people when I think strongly enough +in their company. + +The faith of one great soul out here has helped many to stand steady +when the winds blew strong against them. He knows that America cannot +fail of her destiny; but that she may not take a wrong tack, he would +guide the hand and brush the mists from before the eye of the skipper. + +There are often mists before the path of the “ship of State” in these +grey days. When Wilson took over the railroads, what courage was there! +When all is over there will be many to criticize and blame him; but +criticism and blame are ever the rewards of those who depersonalize +themselves and labor for the good of their country or the world. The +man who is great enough to cast his personality overboard is not hurt +by criticism. It is only the personality that can be hurt. The soul +stands serene and pure above the adverse storms. + +I do not advise all men to disregard their personality. Only those who +bear great responsibilities may safely become impersonal. The small +man, the undeveloped man, could not persuade his soul to take the place +of his lesser self. For the soul must be persuaded to descend and +dwell in the personality. Most souls are only partially incarnated. +The higher self of most men dwells above and apart. It is their +Silent Watcher; but it seldom acts save to warn and save. It leaves +the lesser self to acquire experience and learn its lessons through +suffering and joy, through success and failure. But when the man has so +far evolved that his acts become of more than personal significance, +then the soul may descend and truly guide and influence the man, for +the designs of the soul are ever beyond the personal. It is a conscious +part of the great whole, a conscious part of God whom it worships and +serves, however the lower self may be immersed in trivialities and +blasphemies. + +In any man who has not lost his soul the Higher Watcher has an +interest. For the Watcher is One and he is many. He is your link with +God, Oh, men! He is your link with immortality. + +You do not meet him merely by dying, for you may dwell long in the +astral and lower mental world before meeting him face to face. But if +you can ascend after death to the higher regions, you will find him +there waiting for you. You may bring to him all the fine fruits of your +recent life, and he will enjoy them with you. + +I have met my soul face to face; but I am unable to remain in the +higher regions in peaceful contemplation of his beauty while there is +so much work to be done for the races on earth as calls to me now. Bye +and bye I shall re-ascend; but when I go to heaven for a long sojourn +you will hear from me no more. + +Yes, I too have seen your soul. But I need not describe its face to +you, who see it better than I. Cling to it. The failure of mortal +friendship has no power to shatter the faith of one who can reach to +his own Silent Watcher. And the soul of the faithless friend is pure +as his own, and understands all things. Friendships, like loves, are +made in heaven, and true friendship cannot die. Its roots are deep in +waters of eternity. It is deathless as the Ygdrasil, and its roots are +also above and its branches below. + +But it is better to fail in business than to fail in friendship. + +If a man is great and strong enough, he may draw down his soul to dwell +with him wherever he may be. Then the man is a whole man, he is an +adept. Lincoln is such a man, such a soul. He has become one with his +Higher Watcher, and the two that are one can work even in the regions +of the astral. But such a marriage of heaven and earth is uncommon, as +adepts are uncommon. + +Your father in heaven is one with the Father, and if you are really one +with your father in heaven he can dwell with you even on earth. + +The higher souls of men are closer to men now than they have been +for ages. The doors have been opened. Grief and terror and pain and +devotion to ideals of duty have raised the race of men in three and +a half years as it could not have been raised in a hundred years of +peace. If the race falls back now, it will be a lost opportunity. But +the race will not fall back. + + + + + LETTER XXVIII + + A RITUAL OF FELLOWSHIP + + + _February 8, 1918._ + +I HAVE been waiting for you half an hour, as you sat sewing a seam and +thinking of your friends in France. It warms the heart now to think of +France. The tie between the two great republics is being drawn closer +and closer. + +Shall I tell you an occult secret? The French mixed their blood with +ours long ago, and we have loved them ever since. We are now mixing our +blood with the blood of France, and France will love us in the days +that are to come. + +It is a ritual of fellowship, that mixing of blood. English and French +and Americans and Italians, Irish, Scotch, and all the others. Is +there not a foundation for brotherhood? The blended blood cries from +the ground for love. + +I see in the eyes of the French their feeling for our men as they march +by, or help in the little ways to which American boys are accustomed. +Never again will they look upon us as queer people from beyond the sea. + +We have travelled in their country and spent our money and swaggered +and talked through our noses; but now we are living and dying with +them, and we are brothers of mixed blood. + +Yes, go back to France when you can. They always loved you because you +loved them, but now you will see that they also love your native land. + + + + + LETTER XXIX + + RECRUITING AGENTS + + + _February, 1918._ + +FOR a day or two after America declared that a state of war existed, I +spent most of my time in going about this country, studying conditions +in both worlds. Even before that survey I had a general idea of how +matters stood in those worlds; but I wanted to freshen my memory, for I +had a great idea. Many times during my life on earth I had told myself +that I had a great idea, and sometimes I put it into execution, and +sometimes I failed in doing so. But this time I was determined there +should be no failure. + +When I had seen from my survey that the materials were all at hand, I +sought out a great man, spirit, or whatever you choose to call him. + +Then together we mapped out our campaign. Here are the main points of +it: + +Conservation--where the negative forces should be applied. + +Construction--with our positive forces. + +Coordination--with the synthetic forces. + +We marshalled a group of those strong-minded, strong-willed men and +women who had been out here long enough to know not only their way +about, but how to impress their thoughts upon material-bodied men and +women. These were dispatched here and there, to think, think, think, in +the neighborhood of senators and congressmen, chiefs of industry and +members of the general public. The burden of their impressed thought +was conservation of food, conservation of expenditure, conservation of +all material that would be needed for the activities of war. + +Others who were filled with a great love for the land of their latest +birth, America, went about in bands instilling their patriotic +enthusiasm into the hearts and minds of those millions who had too +long taken America as a matter of course. They sang patriotic songs, +and though they could not be heard by the ears of earth, the spirit of +their singing could be felt, and they accomplished much. + +Then others, the wisest among old leaders of men, were busy in quelling +disorder, in suppressing discontent with the war. Wherever a group of +wild-eyed, peace-prating “idealists” got together to talk twaddle, +there was one or more of these unseen auditors to put the brakes on +responsive enthusiasm to the dangerous principles enunciated. + +I will not bore you by giving all the details of this plan of help +which we labored to make effective. But there were enrolled more than +one million beings out here who have pledged themselves to serve until +their services are no longer required. That may not seem to you a great +number to help invisibly a nation of more than one hundred millions; +but one to every hundred is enough among the active workers, for each +is free to choose assistants among those younger in earth experience. + +To the one who acted as our commander-in-chief, the generals of this +auxiliary army made reports, and many were the strange orders he gave +them. But no one questioned his wisdom, and the results have proved it +over and over. + +One time when I wanted to go North, he sent me to the South, and in +Mobile I learned why my course was changed. + +It is a wonder that the legislators at the various capitols have not +“seen ghosts” during the last months. Perhaps they have. But men are +becoming accustomed to the idea of us now. That is one of the good +results of the war. In looking across the border for their loved ones, +they may encounter the Teachers, even the angels of their loved ones, +and be enlarged in mind. + +I had an amusing experience in the city of ----. There is a “pacifist” +there who has a considerable influence among the members of a certain +set, and I found that when he began one of his “philosophic” talks to +one or more persons, for he has not lectured publicly, I could bewilder +him by speaking in his ear and answering his questions in a way that +made him wonder. For, strange to say perhaps, he could hear me. But +not believing in the possibility of communication between the worlds, +he thought he was having “clairaudient hallucinations,” and consulted +a doctor who told him that he had been brooding too much about the +war. The doctor, who was not a pacifist, advised our friend to take up +ornithology. + +Yes, he is young--and will be young for many incarnations. + +We have also done our share of recruiting. Those who were later called +by the draft were merely encouraged; but there were others who needed +only the dream we sent, or the thought we whispered, to move them in +the right direction; and when a young man’s country is at war, the +right direction is generally towards the nearest recruiting station. + +There was a boy in ---- who had been reading about France and the +fighting in France with a tightening at the heart, a tightening of +horror. He feared the draft. He was not a husky fellow. His labors as +bookkeeper in a bank had not developed his leg muscles, and he had a +capricious digestion. So he told himself that he would be a failure as +a soldier. + +But one time when in sleep he came out into our world, I met him and +invited him to take a stroll with me. Do you think I took him to a +battlefield? Oh, not! I took him to an exercise ground. You may wonder +how I could do that at night; but it chanced that he had fallen asleep +in the daytime. And I made it easy for him to see down into the world +he had temporarily left--to see the exercise ground. It interested him. + +And next day the labor over the ledger seemed duller and more +monotonous than usual. And he overheard a girl say to a friend at the +paying teller’s window, that a sallow faced clerk was not her ideal of +a man, that she liked the soldier boys. + +When he went for a walk after banking hours, I went along with him, and +drew his attention to some marching soldiers who had a good band. The +boy went home and looked at himself in the mirror and found that he was +sallow, and he reminded himself that he was a clerk. + +So he enlisted. + +You may wonder why I took so much trouble to gather one uninteresting +young man into the fold of Uncle Sam’s army, when we had so many +subordinate workers at that business. But I had known the boy’s father +twenty years before, and something he had said influenced _me_ +towards a decision that enlightened my whole after life. + +When that boy returns he will be no longer sallow-faced, and he will be +a hero--not a clerk. + +I like to pay my debts. + + + + + LETTER XXX + + THE VIRUS OF DISRUPTION + + + _February 16, 1918._ + +“FREEDOM with self-restraint and social responsibility” would be a good +motto for Americans in the years that are before them. + +The underground and overground propaganda of Bolshevism, Anarchism, +etc., inspired and fed by the forces of destruction, can be +successfully combated by the spirit of order, of restraint, of +responsibility to the body politic. + +The end of this war will not be the end of confusion. The world-soul +has been inoculated with the virus of disruption, and it will need +the wills of millions working together for a common end to expel the +poison and restore the body of humanity to health and security. + +America as we know it was born of protest against oppression, and the +love of liberty, father and mother, positive and negative, in the +old days. If now the protest against oppression degenerates into the +protest against all restraint, and if the love of liberty degenerates +into the love of license, then I may tell you that those who cannot +govern themselves have to be governed from outside. + +The human race is passing through a period of initiation. The morally +weak and the weak of will are always in danger of being carried away. +The spirit of destruction finds them ready tools with which to work its +will. + +The kingdom of heaven is not immediately at hand, and full seven years +will be needed to _settle the consciousness_ of mankind after the +shaking-up it has received. The dregs, as usual in such cases, have +risen and diffused themselves throughout the fluid of the cup. + +If there were only a dozen people in the United States who understood +or could be made to understand the _occult forces_ behind the +present universal unrest, and if those twelve could work together with +unity of purpose, some here, some there, with the pen, the voice and +the will, under a leader, those twelve might lead the people out of the +wilderness. But where are they? Every leader knows that in unity is +strength. + +And I may mention the opposite law, that in disunity is disintegration. + +Bolshevist and anarchist! Finding the world not to their liking, and +being unable to adjust to environment so as to satisfy their love of +power, or their love of ease, these people have devoted themselves to +destroying the society in which they are unsuccessful. They believe +themselves right. There is so much of the divine in almost the worst +man, that he has to believe he is working for the right even when he +is working evil. It is necessary for a murderer to justify his act in +order to do it, unless he is swept away by blind passion, and then he +seeks to justify passion itself. + +The heart of man is superior to the brain of man. Almost anyone can +feel a good impulse; but the man who can think independently of his +passions is rare and isolate. Popular education does not mean universal +reasoning power. But popular education is the beginning; it is the seed +out of which will grow the tree of world-intellect. + +I have told you of the reign of love that is at length to comfort the +hearts of mankind; but I have not told you that it is coming to-morrow +or the next day. + +If you can get away from the personal and the temporary, and see life +and the movements of cycles in perspective, you will see how temporary +unrest is only a stage by the way. + +He who adjusts to environment adjusts even to unrest. Remember that. +The supple tree feels the wind, but its roots cling tight to the soil +and the rock of individuality. + +Be like the supple tree, America. In the wind that sweeps across the +world, cling tight to the soil of freedom and the rock of _social +responsibility_. You can save the world if you do not lose your hold +on the soil and the rock that have steadied and sustained you. + +The anxious eyes of a Europe in conflagration are turned in your +direction, your friends with hope, your enemies with dread. When you +threw the weight of your strong young body into the scales of justice, +you changed the destiny of the world. Yes, it was your destiny to do it. + +All you who have studied “occultism,” which merely means knowledge too +profound to be understood by the material-minded,--you who have studied +occultism know that to the candidate for initiation come trials and +tests, and that without them he cannot go on. Think of the human race +as a candidate for initiation. If your mind is developed beyond the +minds of your fellows--you, and you, and you--do not forget that you +are united to them by an indissoluble bond. You cannot break away from +the race. You may rise above it as the Master does, or sink beneath +it as the lost souls do; but the link between you and those other +fragments of God can only be broken at your peril. + +The Master works for the race, knowing well that he cannot safely +ignore it. Even if he made himself equal with the gods and desired to +build a world of his own, he would have to take the substance for it +from the common reservoir of substance. If like a spider he could spin +his world-web from himself, he would have to eat the common substance +to sustain himself in his power. + +You may as well love the race, for you cannot escape it altogether. +Even if you rise and dwell in the thin air of the kingdom of the mind, +you will feel the wind-currents from your fellows above and below. Some +will deny this, but I have made the test. + +I recently sought a high place for rest. But the needs of the world +pulled me back. + +The greatest need of the world for the next few years will be the +knowledge of the law of conservation. Retain, O world! the treasures +you have labored for throughout the centuries, and discard only the +worn-out garments and utensils. The wooden plough and the wooden shoe +are no longer needed in a wisely ordered world; but the sciences and +the arts you will need, and the Gothic cathedrals you destroy can never +be replaced. + + + + + LETTER XXXI + + THE ALTAR FIRE + + + _February 18, 1918._ + +ALWAYS the pull of the opposites! In all the talk of internationalism, +let us not forget nationalism. The enemy of the present hour made +great use of it, but he did not reckon with its opposite. It is not +true internationalism to support spies as commercial agents in all the +countries of earth. + +America of all nations is best fitted to carry on her standards: Each +for all, and all for each. + +But in her love for other races, for other nationalities, let her not +forget to strengthen and uphold her own. + +“My Country, ’tis of Thee!” As that sentiment grows ever stronger in +your heart, so will your justice to other nations make you recognize +that their countries are of them. For your country was not built upon +the idea of world domination, but of freedom--for yourselves and for +all men. + +Your president has been called a maker of phrases. That is good. A man +who can make phrases that shall carry themselves around the world can +influence the thought of the world. + +“To make the world safe for democracy.” Those words will go down the +centuries. + +You Americans who love the storied lands of Europe, do not +underestimate this land that gave you birth. It is great as the +greatest now, and its clock has not yet struck twelve noonday. It is +still morning in America. The present day American is the ancestor of +the man of the Sixth Race. From many stocks he will spring, and his +blood will be blended from that of all the races which have preceded +him. He will be unique in his qualities. No man of the older races can +imitate him, for his consciousness will be his own. + +A man is not, as you have so often said, so many pounds of flesh and +bone and blood and sinew, but a man is a state of consciousness. It is +because you recognize their state of consciousness as being themselves, +that men and women reveal themselves to you. + +If--or when--you go back to Europe to live, do not forget your country. +Do not remain too long away from it, lest you lose touch with that +unique consciousness which shall flower in the Sixth Race. + +Yes, a great art will grow up in America. After another fifty years it +will be ripe. Let us hope it will not begin to rot thereafter, but like +a sound American apple preserve its solidity for a long time. + +This war is good for America. It is not well for a race to have so +great a material success without some pain and struggle. It is pain +that mellows the heart. + +America has not yet found her soul, but she will find it. Those +Americans who are now broken-hearted are finding their souls. + +France found her soul a long time ago, and she is now finding her +divinity. Would she have found it but for suffering? The Christ upon +the cross is greater than the Christ at the marriage supper in Cana of +Galilee. + +If I had not wanted you to write this book, I should have sent you +back to London, that you might experience the strain of air raids and +insufficient food. I should have sent you back to France, that you +might see and touch and minister to the wounded. + +Though you have endured the strain of the astral world at war, you have +not yet seen and touched and tasted the agony of physical suffering +that the women of France have seen and touched and tasted. But you +cannot live and suffer in too many worlds at once. + +Do you not think that our American boys who are fighting now in France +will be greater for the experience--whether they live or die? Life +in material form is not the only life, and those who make the great +sacrifice will gain more than they lose. It is sublime to die for an +ideal. “To make the world safe for democracy.” + +America is better known to Europeans now than she has been before. Many +of you will go and come, as you have done in the past; and a few of +you will vitalize the mutual understanding between America and Europe. +But you can do that only by glorifying your own nationality in your +hearts. I do not mean flaunting it. Let it burn as an altar fire, in +the secret temple of your being. + + + THE END + + + + + =TRANSCRIBER’S NOTES= + +Simple typographical errors have been silently corrected; unbalanced +quotation marks were remedied when the change was obvious, and +otherwise left unbalanced. + +Punctuation, hyphenation, and spelling were made consistent when a +predominant preference was found in the original book; otherwise they +were not changed. + + + +*** END OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK 76990 *** diff --git a/76990-h/76990-h.htm b/76990-h/76990-h.htm new file mode 100644 index 0000000..1d075b9 --- /dev/null +++ b/76990-h/76990-h.htm @@ -0,0 +1,4319 @@ +<!DOCTYPE html> +<html lang="en"> +<head> + <meta charset="UTF-8"> + <title> + Last Letters From the Living Dead Man | Project Gutenberg + </title> + <link rel="icon" href="images/cover.jpg" type="image/x-cover"> + <style> + +body { + margin-left: 10%; + margin-right: 10%; +} + +/* General headers */ + +h1 { + text-align: center; + clear: both; +} + +/* General headers */ +h2, h3 { + text-align: center; + font-weight: bold; + margin-top: 1em; + margin-bottom: 1em; + } + +p { + margin-top: .51em; + text-align: justify; + margin-bottom: .49em; + text-indent: 1.5em; +} + +.nind {text-indent:0;} + +.nindc {text-align:center; text-indent:0;} + +.large {font-size: 125%;} + +.spa1 { + margin-top: 1em + } + +hr { + width: 33%; + margin-top: 2em; + margin-bottom: 2em; + margin-left: 33.5%; + margin-right: 33.5%; + clear: both; +} + +.space-above2 { margin-top: 2em; } +.space-below2 { margin-bottom: 2em; } + +.toc { + margin: 1em auto; + max-width: 22em; + border: 2px solid black; + text-indent: 0%; + text-align: center + } + +hr.chap {width: 65%; margin-left: 17.5%; margin-right: 17.5%;} +@media print { hr.chap {display: none; visibility: hidden;} } + +div.chapter {page-break-before: always;} +h2.nobreak {page-break-before: avoid;} + +ul {margin-left: 1em; padding-left: 0;} +li {list-style-type: none; padding-left: 2em; text-indent: -2.5em; text-align: left;} + +table { + margin-left: auto; + margin-right: auto; +} +table.autotable { border-collapse: collapse; } +table.autotable td { padding: 0.25em; } + +.tdl {text-align: left;} +.tdr {text-align: right;} + +.pagenum { /* uncomment the next line for invisible page numbers */ + /* visibility: hidden; */ + position: absolute; + left: 92%; + font-size: small; + text-align: right; + font-style: normal; + font-weight: normal; + font-variant: normal; + text-indent: 0; +} /* page numbers */ + +.blockquot { + margin-left: 5%; + margin-right: 10%; +} + +.right {text-align: right;} + +.allsmcap {font-variant: small-caps; text-transform: lowercase;} + +/* Dropcap */ + +.dropcap { + float: left; + font-size: 250%; + margin-top:-.7%; +} + +p.dropcap:first-letter +{ + color: transparent; + visibility: hidden; + margin-left: -0.9em; +} + +/* Images */ + +img {max-width: 100%; width: 100%; height: auto;} +.width500 {max-width: 500px;} +.x-ebookmaker .width500 {width: 100%;} + + +.figcenter { + margin: auto; + text-align: center; + page-break-inside: avoid; + max-width: 100%; +} + +/* Footnotes */ +.footnotes {border: 1px dashed;} + +.footnote {margin-left: 10%; margin-right: 10%; font-size: 0.9em;} + +.footnote .label {position: absolute; right: 84%; text-align: right;} + +.fnanchor { + vertical-align: super; + font-size: .8em; + text-decoration: + none; +} + +/* Transcriber's notes */ +.transnote {background-color: #E6E6FA; + color: black; + font-size:small; + padding:0.5em; + margin-bottom:5em; + font-family:sans-serif, serif; +} + + </style> +</head> +<body> +<div style='text-align:center'>*** START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK 76990 ***</div> + +<figure class="figcenter width500" id="cover" style="width: 1813px;"> +<img src="images/cover.jpg" width="1813" height="2560" alt="This book +is the third and last of the Living Dead Man series. The author states +that these spiritualistic messages are from Judge David P. Hatch."> +</figure> + + +<hr class="chap x-ebookmaker-drop"> + + +<div class="chapter"> +<p class="nindc"><span class="large"> +LAST LETTERS<br> +FROM THE LIVING DEAD MAN</span></p> +</div> + + +<hr class="chap x-ebookmaker-drop"> + +<div class="chapter"> +<div class="toc"> +<p class="nindc">BY ELSA BARKER</p> + +<ul><li> LETTERS FROM A LIVING DEAD MAN</li> +<li> WAR LETTERS FROM THE LIVING DEAD</li> +<li> <span style="margin-left: 1em;">MAN</span></li> +<li> SONGS OF A VAGROM ANGEL</li> +<li> LAST LETTERS FROM THE LIVING DEAD</li> +<li> <span style="margin-left: 1em;">MAN</span></li> +<li> THE SON OF MARY BETHEL</li> +<li> THE FROZEN GRAIL</li> +<li> THE BOOK OF LOVE</li> +<li> STORIES FROM THE NEW TESTAMENT</li> +<li> FOR CHILDREN</li> +</ul> +</div></div> + + +<hr class="chap x-ebookmaker-drop"> + +<div class="chapter"> +<h1>LAST LETTERS<br> +FROM THE<br> +LIVING DEAD MAN</h1> + + +<p class="nindc space-above2"><span class="large"> +<span class="allsmcap">WRITTEN DOWN<br> +BY</span><br> +ELSA BARKER</span></p> + + +<p class="nindc space-above2 space-below2"> +WITH AN INTRODUCTION</p> + + +<figure class="figcenter width500" id="logo" style="width: 80px;"> + <img src="images/logo.jpg" width="80" height="65" alt="decorative"> +</figure> + + +<p class="nindc space-above2 space-below2">NEW YORK<br> +MITCHELL KENNERLEY<br> +1919</p> +</div> + + +<hr class="chap x-ebookmaker-drop"> + + +<div class="chapter"> +<p class="nindc space-above2 space-below2"> +<span class="allsmcap">COPYRIGHT, 1919, BY<br> +MITCHELL KENNERLEY</span></p> + + +<p class="nindc space-above2 space-below2"> +<span class="allsmcap">PRINTED IN AMERICA BY<br> +J. J. LITTLE & IVES COMPANY</span></p> +</div> + + +<hr class="chap x-ebookmaker-drop"> + +<div class="chapter"> +<h2 class="nobreak" id="CONTENTS">CONTENTS</h2> +</div> + +<table class="autotable"> +<tbody><tr> +<td class="tdl"><span class="allsmcap">INTRODUCTION</span></td> +<td class="tdr"><a href="#Page_7">7</a></td> +</tr><tr> +<td class="tdl"><span class="allsmcap">LETTER</span></td> +<td class="tdr"> </td> +</tr><tr> +<td class="tdl"><span class="allsmcap">I THE GENIUS OF AMERICA</span></td> +<td class="tdr"><a href="#Page_49">49</a></td> +</tr><tr> +<td class="tdl"><span class="allsmcap">II FEAR NOT</span></td> +<td class="tdr"><a href="#Page_54">54</a></td> +</tr><tr> +<td class="tdl"><span class="allsmcap">III THE PROMISE OF SPRING</span></td> +<td class="tdr"><a href="#Page_61">61</a></td> +</tr><tr> +<td class="tdl"><span class="allsmcap">IV THE DIET OF GOLD</span></td> +<td class="tdr"><a href="#Page_67">67</a></td> +</tr><tr> +<td class="tdl"><span class="allsmcap">V CONTINGENT FEES</span></td> +<td class="tdr"><a href="#Page_71">71</a></td> +</tr><tr> +<td class="tdl"><span class="allsmcap">VI THE THREE APPEALS</span></td> +<td class="tdr"><a href="#Page_74">74</a></td> +</tr><tr> +<td class="tdl"><span class="allsmcap">VII THE BUILDERS</span></td> +<td class="tdr"><a href="#Page_76">76</a></td> +</tr><tr> +<td class="tdl"><span class="allsmcap">VIII THE WORLD OF MIND</span></td> +<td class="tdr"><a href="#Page_88">88</a></td> +</tr><tr> +<td class="tdl"><span class="allsmcap">IX AMERICA’S GOOD FRIDAY</span></td> +<td class="tdr"><a href="#Page_95">95</a></td> +</tr><tr> +<td class="tdl"><span class="allsmcap">X THE CRUCIBLE</span></td> +<td class="tdr"><a href="#Page_97">97</a></td> +</tr><tr> +<td class="tdl"><span class="allsmcap">XI MAKE CLEAN YOUR HOUSE</span></td> +<td class="tdr"><a href="#Page_103">103</a></td> +</tr><tr> +<td class="tdl"><span class="allsmcap">XII LEVEL HEADS</span></td> +<td class="tdr"><a href="#Page_109">109</a></td> +</tr><tr> +<td class="tdl"><span class="allsmcap">XIII TREES AND BRICK WALLS</span></td> +<td class="tdr"><a href="#Page_112">112</a></td> +</tr><tr> +<td class="tdl"><span class="allsmcap">XIV INVISIBLE ARMIES</span></td> +<td class="tdr"><a href="#Page_114">114</a></td> +</tr><tr> +<td class="tdl"><span class="allsmcap">XV THE WEAKEST LINK</span></td> +<td class="tdr"><a href="#Page_118">118</a></td> +</tr><tr> +<td class="tdl"><span class="allsmcap">XVI A COUNCIL IN THE FOREST</span></td> +<td class="tdr"><a href="#Page_123">123</a></td> +</tr><tr> +<td class="tdl"><span class="allsmcap">XVII THE IDEAL OF SUCCESS</span></td> +<td class="tdr"><a href="#Page_140">140</a></td> +</tr><tr> +<td class="tdl"><span class="allsmcap">XVIII ORDER AND PROGRESS</span></td> +<td class="tdr"><a href="#Page_147">147</a></td> +</tr><tr> +<td class="tdl"><span class="allsmcap">XIX THE FEDERATION OF NATIONS</span></td> +<td class="tdr"><a href="#Page_155">155</a></td> +</tr><tr> +<td class="tdl"><span class="allsmcap">XX THE NEW IDEAL</span></td> +<td class="tdr"><a href="#Page_159">159</a></td> +</tr><tr> +<td class="tdl"><span class="allsmcap">XXI A RAMBLING TALK</span></td> +<td class="tdr"><a href="#Page_166">166</a></td> +</tr><tr> +<td class="tdl"><span class="allsmcap">XXII THE LEVER OF WORLD UNITY</span></td> +<td class="tdr"><a href="#Page_171">171</a></td> +</tr><tr> +<td class="tdl"><span class="allsmcap">XXIII THE STARS OF MAN’S DESTINY</span></td> +<td class="tdr"><a href="#Page_179">179</a></td> +</tr><tr> +<td class="tdl"><span class="allsmcap">XXIV MELANCHOLY</span></td> +<td class="tdr"><a href="#Page_182">182</a></td> +</tr><tr> +<td class="tdl"><span class="allsmcap">XXV COMPENSATORY PLAY</span></td> +<td class="tdr"><a href="#Page_190">190</a></td> +</tr><tr> +<td class="tdl"><span class="allsmcap">XXVI THE AQUARIAN AGE</span></td> +<td class="tdr"><a href="#Page_198">198</a></td> +</tr><tr> +<td class="tdl"><span class="allsmcap">XXVII THE WATCHERS</span></td> +<td class="tdr"><a href="#Page_209">209</a></td> +</tr><tr> +<td class="tdl"><span class="allsmcap">XXVIII A RITUAL OF FELLOWSHIP</span></td> +<td class="tdr"><a href="#Page_216">216</a></td> +</tr><tr> +<td class="tdl"><span class="allsmcap">XXIX RECRUITING AGENTS</span></td> +<td class="tdr"><a href="#Page_218">218</a></td> +</tr><tr> +<td class="tdl"><span class="allsmcap">XXX THE VIRUS OF DISRUPTION</span></td> +<td class="tdr"><a href="#Page_227">227</a></td> +</tr><tr> +<td class="tdl"><span class="allsmcap">XXXI THE ALTAR FIRE</span></td> +<td class="tdr"><a href="#Page_235">235</a></td> +</tr> +</tbody> +</table> + + + +<hr class="chap x-ebookmaker-drop"> + +<div class="chapter"> + + +<h2 class="nobreak" id="LAST_LETTERS_FROM_THE_LIVING_DEAD_MAN">LAST LETTERS FROM THE LIVING DEAD MAN</h2> + + +<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_7">[Pg 7]</span></p> +<h2 class="nobreak" id="INTRODUCTION">INTRODUCTION</h2> +</div> + + +<p class="nind"> +<span class="dropcap">T</span>HIS book, the third and last of the Living Dead Man series, was +written between February, 1917, and February, 1918. Then I lost the +ability—or perhaps I should say the inclination—to do automatic +writing.</p> + +<p>As this third manuscript was shorter than the other two, I had supposed +it to be a fragment which would probably never be finished; and it was +not until my publisher urged me to issue it <i>as</i> a fragment that I +read it all over for the first time and discovered that it was really a +complete thing, an organic whole.</p> + +<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_8">[Pg 8]</span></p> + +<p>“Perhaps,” I told myself, surprised and still half-incredulous, “there +<i>is</i> a divinity that shapes our ends.” For had this book been +published when it was written, it would have seemed premature; now the +greater part of it is timely as yesterday’s editorials.</p> + +<p>For the benefit of those who have not read the earlier books of the +series, “Letters From a Living Dead Man,” 1914, and “War Letters From +the Living Dead Man,” 1915, I will quote from the Introductions of +those books. In the first Introduction I said:</p> + +<div class="blockquot"> + +<p>“One night last year in Paris I was strongly impelled to take up a +pencil and write, though what I was to write about I had no idea. +Yielding to the impulse, my hand was seized as if from the outside, +and a remarkable message of a personal nature came, followed by the +signature ‘X.’</p> + +<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_9">[Pg 9]</span></p> + +<p>“The purport of the message was clear, but the signature puzzled me.</p> + +<p>“The following day I showed this writing to a friend, asking her if +she had any idea who ‘X’ was.</p> + +<p>“‘Why,’ she replied, ‘don’t you know that that is what we always call +Mr. ——?’</p> + +<p>“I did not know.</p> + +<p>“Now, Mr. —— was six thousand miles from Paris, and, as we supposed, +in the land of the living. But a day or two later a letter came to me +from America, stating that Mr. —— had died in the western part of +the United States, a few days before I received in Paris the automatic +message signed ‘X.’</p> + +<p>“So far as I know, I was the first person in Europe to be informed +of his death, and I immediately called on my friend to tell her that +‘X’ had passed out. She did not seem surprised, and told me that she +had felt certain of it some days before, when I had shown her the ‘X’ +letter, though she had not said so at the time.</p> + +<p>“Naturally I was impressed by this extraordinary incident....</p> + +<p>“But to the whole subject of communication between the two worlds I +felt an<span class="pagenum" id="Page_10">[Pg 10]</span> unusual degree of indifference. Spiritualism had always left +me quite cold, and I had not even read the ordinary standard works on +the subject....</p> + +<p>“Several letters signed ‘X’ were automatically written during the next +few weeks; but, instead of becoming enthusiastic, I developed a strong +disinclination for this manner of writing, and was only persuaded to +continue it through the arguments of my friend that if ‘X’ really +wished to communicate with the world, I was highly privileged in being +able to help him....</p> + +<p>“Gradually, as I conquered my strong prejudice against automatic +writing, I became interested in the things which ‘X’ told me about the +life beyond the grave....</p> + +<p>“When it was first suggested that these letters should be published +with an introduction by me, I did not take very enthusiastically to +the idea. Being the author of several books, more or less well known, +I had my little vanity as to the stability of my literary reputation. +I did not wish to be known as an eccentric, a ‘freak.’ But I consented +to write an introduction<span class="pagenum" id="Page_11">[Pg 11]</span> stating that the letters were automatically +written in my presence, which would have been the truth, though not +all the truth. This satisfied my friend; but as time went on, it did +not satisfy me. It seemed not quite sincere.</p> + +<p>“I argued the matter out with myself.... The letters were probably +two-thirds written before this question was finally settled; and I +decided that if I published the letters at all, I should publish them +with a frank introduction, stating the exact circumstances of their +reception by me.”</p> +</div> + +<p>The interest aroused by “Letters From a Living Dead Man,” which had +been published simultaneously in London and New York, astonished me. +Requests for translation rights began to come in, and I was flooded +with letters from all parts of the world. I answered as many as I +could, but to answer all was quite impossible.</p> + +<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_12">[Pg 12]</span></p> + +<p>Now I will quote again, briefly, from the Introduction to the second +volume, “War Letters From the Living Dead Man,” 1915.</p> + +<div class="blockquot"> + +<p>“In that first book of ‘X’ I did not state who the writer was, not +feeling at liberty to do so without the consent of his family; but +in the summer of 1914, while I was still living in Europe, a long +interview with Mr. Bruce Hatch appeared in the ‘New York Sunday +World,’ in which he expressed the conviction that the ‘Letters’ were +genuine communications from his father, the late Judge David P. Hatch, +of Los Angeles, California....</p> + +<p>“After the Letters were finished in 1913, during a period of about +two years I was conscious of the presence of ‘X’ only on two or three +occasions, when he wrote some brief advice in regard to my personal +affairs.</p> + +<p>“On the fourth of February, 1915, in New York, I was suddenly made +aware one day that ‘X’ stood in the room and wished to write; but as +always before, with one or two exceptions, I had not the<span class="pagenum" id="Page_13">[Pg 13]</span> remotest +idea of what he was going to say. He wrote as follows:</p> + +<p>“‘When I come back and tell you the story of this war, as seen from +the other side, you will know more than all the Chancelleries of the +nations.’”</p> +</div> + +<p>Then I went on to describe the process of my automatic writing, adding:</p> + +<div class="blockquot"> + +<p>“No person who had had even a minute fraction of my occult experience +could be more coldly critical of that experience than I am. I freely +welcome every logical argument against the belief that these letters +are what they purport to be; but placing those arguments in opposition +to the evidence which I have of the genuineness of them, the +affirmations outweigh the denials, and I accept them. This evidence is +too complex and much of it too personal to be even outlined here.”</p> +</div> + +<p>The second volume, which dealt with the war from the hidden side of +things, and predicted the victory of the Allies,<span class="pagenum" id="Page_14">[Pg 14]</span> aroused even more +interest than the first one. The flood of letters continued.</p> + +<p>In 1916, at the kind insistence of Joyce Kilmer, I published another +and different little book of automatic writings, “Songs of a Vagrom +Angel,” the angel being the Beautiful Being described by “X” in the +Living Dead Man books. The “Songs” were charmingly received by the +critics. The whole book, with the exception of three of the songs, had +been “written down” in twenty-two hours.</p> + +<p>In the summer of 1916 I went to California, and it was there, in +February, 1917, that the writing of this third book began.</p> + +<p>But I was growing more and more restive at the swamping of my literary +career by automatic writings, and my mountainous correspondence left +me less and less time for original work. Finally,<span class="pagenum" id="Page_15">[Pg 15]</span> in February, 1918, +the “inner conflict” culminated in a complete cessation of automatic +writing.</p> + +<p>The artist in me had become exasperated. If the reader will permit +the exaggeration of the simile, I felt as a man might feel who was +caught between the jaws of a lion that was carrying him away into a +trackless jungle. Before March, 1914, I had been known as a poet and a +novelist; since 1914 my name had become known in more countries than +I have counted as a “psychic,” a medium of communication between the +visible and the invisible worlds. I was not sorry that I had published +the books, because so many people had written me that I had saved them +from despair and even suicide; but I shrank from the publicity they +brought me. I have been nearly devoured by these books and the readers +of these<span class="pagenum" id="Page_16">[Pg 16]</span> books. I felt, in February, 1918, that I had a right to say +that the incident was closed.</p> + +<p>But that did not mean a cessation of correspondence. Suffering souls +to whose letters the limitations of time and uncertain health (for I +had not been well since 1915) made it impossible to respond by return +of post, would write again reproaching me with indifference to their +sufferings. The situation had become inconceivable. And if I went out +somewhere for an hour or two of social “rest,” I was surrounded by +people who wanted me to talk to them about the “X” books, about their +own dead friends, and the possibilities of communication.</p> + +<p>I was torn by pity for those who were suffering, and after years of war +nearly everyone was suffering; but I wanted to be at the front with +the Red Cross, and<span class="pagenum" id="Page_17">[Pg 17]</span> my health would not permit me to go. I could help +various war committees, but I could not go to my tortured and beloved +France—to be perhaps an added burden, should I break down altogether.</p> + +<p>The only escape from this conflict was in abstruse studies, studies +where pure mind can work. So I seriously took up Analytical Psychology, +in which I had been mildly interested since 1915. Some fourteen hours a +day for a year I studied, some of the time with a teacher, some of the +time alone. I burrowed under the theories of the three great schools, +and synthesized them, after my fashion. I had rather an active mind to +experiment upon—my own. The “resistances,” so-called, had been broken +down by the teacher.</p> + +<p>One of the things which appealed most to my reason was Jung’s +insistence upon<span class="pagenum" id="Page_18">[Pg 18]</span> the psychological (and therefore practical) value of +the irrational. He says:</p> + +<div class="blockquot"> + +<p>“There is no human foresight nor philosophy which can enable us to +give our lives a prescribed direction, except for quite a short +distance. Destiny lies before us, perplexing us, and teeming with +possibilities, and yet only one of these many possibilities is our +own particular right way.... Much can certainly be attained by +will-power. But ... our will is a function that is directed by our +powers of reflection.... Has it ever been proved, or can it ever be +proved, that life and destiny harmonize with our human reason, that +is, that they are exclusively rational? On the contrary, we have +ground for supposing that they are also irrational, that is to say, +that in the last resort they too are based in regions beyond the +human reason. The irrationality of the great process is shown by its +so-called <i>accidentalness</i>.... The rich store of life both is, +and is not, determined by law; it is at the same time rational and +irrational. Therefore, the reason and the<span class="pagenum" id="Page_19">[Pg 19]</span> will founded upon it are +only valid for a short distance. The further we extend this rationally +chosen direction, the surer we may be that we are thereby excluding +the irrational possibilities of life, which have, however, just as +good a right to be lived. Aye, we may injure ourselves, since we +cut off the wealth of accidental eventualities by a too rigid and +conscious direction.... The present fearful catastrophic world-war has +tremendously upset the most optimistic upholder of rationalism and +culture.”</p> +</div> + +<p>Now my rationally chosen “line of life” had been that of writing books +of poetry, fiction and essays. But “accidentalness” cut in, and I wrote +automatically and published what I had written. That destiny, that +second line of life, may also have been, for all we can prove to the +contrary, based “in regions beyond the human reason.”</p> + +<p>I should not like to say that my having led the way, in the spring of +1914, for<span class="pagenum" id="Page_20">[Pg 20]</span> writers of dignified reputation to publish their automatic +writings might have been causally directed by the coming great need of +the world for spiritual consolation during the most awful holocaust in +history. That would be pressing irrationality too far.</p> + +<p>But that second line of life, as Jung would call it, came to its +inevitable end with the last of this manuscript in February, 1918. The +cause of that was also seemingly accidental. But as this Introduction +is only an introduction, it is impossible to follow the course of all +the drops of water in the broad river that has flowed under my mental +bridges during the last fourteen months.</p> + +<p>My present line of life (and through the analysis of my dreams I have +means of knowing what it is) points to the resumption of my original +literary work, poetry,<span class="pagenum" id="Page_21">[Pg 21]</span> fiction and essays, and to the exclusion, so +far as possible, of everything that would deflect me from that course. +“Accidentality” will cut in from time to time, change of place and +therefore change of outlook, studies of all sorts, and legitimate +demands by that society of which I form a part; but I have done enough +automatic writing. Others will do it, if it must be done; and probably +it must—because it is an outlet which it might be unsafe to stop up in +the present state of the race consciousness.</p> + +<p>Of course if I should feel strongly impelled to do automatic writing, I +should do it, trusting to that destiny which is another name for causes +beyond our comprehension; but it was the strength of my “inner protest” +that made me realize that I had gone far enough along that line.</p> + +<p>As in the forewords to the former<span class="pagenum" id="Page_22">[Pg 22]</span> books, I state the psychological +situation of the moment, saying, “so and so happened.” The reader, as +before, will interpret in his own way. This introduction indicates my +point of view in the month of April, 1919. Before the month of May, +2019, I shall have solved the problem of survival, or demonstrated +(without knowing it) that it is insoluble.</p> + +<p>The more we know about all these things, the less likely we are to +assume that we have the sum of all knowledge. We are like children, +groping among psychological lights and shadows.</p> + +<p>My own belief in immortality seems ineradicable. I did not know that +until it was tested out. But we must always remember that our personal +belief is not absolute evidence of the truth of what we believe—at +least until we shall have examined all the psychological roots of +the<span class="pagenum" id="Page_23">[Pg 23]</span> belief, and in the present state of our knowledge that is +well-nigh impossible. Our rational belief, if we have formed one for +ourselves and have not merely accepted uncritically the beliefs of our +predecessors and associates, is merely our individual synthesis. But we +must not give an exaggerated value even to our own hard-won synthesis. +That also is a moving, an ever-changing, thing. Otherwise we should not +grow. When a man becomes fixed he begins to disintegrate.</p> + +<p>In the first book of this series I stated the fact that I had never +been interested in spiritualism. Consciously, I never had. Now, Dr. +Alfred Adler, the head of what we may call the Ego School of analysis, +says: “Often the negation is the assertion of an old interest that +has become unconscious.” Yes.... My father was deeply interested +in spiritualism, and I<span class="pagenum" id="Page_24">[Pg 24]</span> was born in an old house where ghosts were +supposed to walk. My mother was afraid of the subject. My father died +when I was thirteen. I was always a little afraid of my father. The +first time I met Judge Hatch I told him that perhaps he had been my +father in a “former incarnation.” He smiled, and said, “Maybe.”</p> + +<p>No microscopist had ever a greater interest in facts than I have. My +scientific friends say, “A scientist was lost in you.” Other friends +say, “You are a great psychic.” So there I found myself. In studying +with the scientific half the phenomena of the psychic half, I am able +to unify them.</p> + +<p>The <i>authority</i> of the Church has been knocked from under us. We +are adrift, we thinking humans of the early twentieth century, upon a +sea of mind, stormtossed<span class="pagenum" id="Page_25">[Pg 25]</span> by winds of feeling. We were just beginning +to believe in universal brotherhood—when universal war broke out. Our +steersman seemed to have been washed overboard. Everybody wants to take +the helm, distrusting his neighbor’s judgment. Is it any wonder that +bewildered souls by thousands turned to automatic writing, seeking for +guidance, for something <i>authoritative</i>? In childhood our parents +guided us. Later the Church guided us—or tried to. Then science guided +us—a little too far. And in the reaction we turned inward, to find +(sometimes) the unconscious more troubled than the conscious. But in +the Letters which follow there is no despair, only light and courage +and hope.</p> + +<p>There seem to be two main streams in us, the mental and the +instinctive. Bergson says, in his “Creative Evolution,”<span class="pagenum" id="Page_26">[Pg 26]</span> “There are +things which intelligence alone is able to seek, but which, by itself, +it will never find. These things instinct alone could find; but it will +never seek them.”</p> + +<p>It was inevitable that modern psychology, with its constructive +curiosity, should turn its attention to the religious beliefs of the +past and present. There was no other way of understanding what really +goes on in the minds of people. Some of these old beliefs proved, +on examination, to be scientifically tenable. For instance, the +Theosophists (who got the idea from the Hindoos) tell us there are two +streams of evolution, the elemental and the human. Dr. C. J. Jung, +the head of the Swiss school of Analytical Psychology, divides the +stream of “energy” into two currents, one going forward and one going +backward. And this duality of will Bleuler calls “ambitendency.” The<span class="pagenum" id="Page_27">[Pg 27]</span> +difference is chiefly a difference of phraseology and associations.</p> + +<p>“Always the pull of the opposites,” I quote from the Letters which +follow. The present psychic wave which is sweeping over the world is +accompanied by modern analytical psychology. Truth may lie in the +synthesis.</p> + +<p>Between the credulity of those who believe everything purporting to +come from the other side of the veil, who accept every suggestion from +anybody claiming to be “psychic” who half-closes the eyes and says +dreamily, “You will do so and so,”—between this thirst for delusion +and the materialists’ denial that there is anything but matter and the +functions of <i>matter</i>, there is also a middle ground.</p> + +<p>The great pioneer of analytical psychology himself said, in a recent +little volume on “War and Death,” translated<span class="pagenum" id="Page_28">[Pg 28]</span> by Dr. A. A. Brill: “In +the unconscious every one of us is convinced of his own immortality.” +Suppose the unconscious should be right?</p> + +<p>And, by the way, between the statement of Christian Scientists, “All is +love,” and the statement of the parent school of psychoanalysis, “All +is libido,” there is striking similarity.</p> + +<p>Jung would say, “All is energy.” Judge Hatch wrote, in a little +book published in 1905, “We postulate immortal Units of Force, +each having the power to generate a constant but limited amount of +energy, and no two alike in quantity. Upon this force generation in +the unit, necessitated by law, do we base life. Life results from +the inter-dealing and inter-playing of these units among themselves +eternally, sometimes potential, again kinetic, each limited in the +amount of force<span class="pagenum" id="Page_29">[Pg 29]</span> generated, but unlimited in variety of motion, +manifestation or specialization.”</p> + +<p>Truth may indeed be one, though the roads to it are many.</p> + +<p>Fechner’s assertion, that the dead live in us and so influence us, does +not require much stretching to fit the hypothesis that the entire past +of the human race is contained in the deeper levels of the unconscious. +If we go deep enough in analysis that hypothesis is illustrated by +strange phenomena.</p> + +<p>It is unwise, at the present time more than any other, even to try +to take away man’s belief in immortality. The world is too sad, too +near the ragged edge where personal uncertainty drifts into social +irresponsibility. The psychic wave that is sweeping over the world, +though it is being carried to excess, as all overcompensations are, +answers nevertheless to a tremendous<span class="pagenum" id="Page_30">[Pg 30]</span> need. Credulity is the other end +of doubt.</p> + +<p>Dr. Smith Ely Jelliffe, in the Introduction to his translation of +Silberer’s “Problems of Mysticism and Its Symbolism,” says:</p> + +<div class="blockquot"> + +<p>“Much of the strange and <i>outré</i>, as well as the commonplace, +in human activity conceals energy transformations of inestimable +value in the work of sublimation. The race would go mad without it. +It sometimes does even with it, a sign that sublimation is still +imperfect and that the race is far from being spiritually well. A +comprehension of the principles here involved would further the spread +of sympathy for all forms of thinking and tend to further spiritual +health in such mutual comprehension of the needs of others and of the +forms taken by sublimation processes.”</p> +</div> + +<p>William James defended the Christian Scientists. And Jung himself says, +in one<span class="pagenum" id="Page_31">[Pg 31]</span> of his famous letters to Dr. Loy, “Every method is good if it +serves its purpose, including Christian Science, Mental Healing, etc.”</p> + +<p>During the last five years man has had such varied reasons for fearing +objective things that he has come to fear the subjective, perhaps even +more than during the Middle Ages.</p> + +<p>Dr. H. W. Frink says, in his masterly book on “Morbid Fears and +Compulsions”: “The biological function or purpose of fear is protective +or preservative. Every one of us alive to-day owes his existence to the +fact that his human and pre-human ancestors were afraid.”</p> + +<p>Nearly everyone is afraid of something. Sublime Jeanne d’Arc was +terribly afraid of the fire. (Perhaps she had been badly burned in +infancy, and the unconscious memory twisted and turned in the deeps<span class="pagenum" id="Page_32">[Pg 32]</span> of +her pure soul. Perhaps, and perhaps ... for we shall never know.)</p> + +<p>When we really know what fear is, we shall have solved the mystery of +“the one and the many” that disturbed the cerebration of our ancestors. +Fear may be a momentary surging up of the ego’s consciousness of +its own helpless littleness before the immensity of the unknown and +unknowable non-ego. The reckless courage of the soldier may be an +overcompensation, a triumphant sublimation—sometimes followed by +reaction, secret or unconcealable, depending on the intensity.</p> + +<p>For, as Silberer says, “The conflicts do not indeed lie in the external +world, but in our <i>emotional disposition towards it</i>; if we change +this disposition by an inner development, the external world has a +different value....”</p> + +<p>Man is indeed his own cosmos, the<span class="pagenum" id="Page_33">[Pg 33]</span> microcosm of the macrocosm, to a +degree incomprehensible to one who has not intelligently studied (and +in himself) the phenomena of “projection,” and compensation including +sublimation.</p> + +<p>The great mystics of all ages, through introversion, having discovered +this and reduced it to a science, after their fashion, great modern +scientists like Jung and Silberer have found their systems worthy of +profound study.</p> + +<p>Writing of mysticism, Professor Dwelshauvers of Brussels says:</p> + +<div class="blockquot"> + +<p>“The effects of mystic union are logical and coherent; a second +quality of the acts of the order of grace is the positive character of +the contribution, the increase which they bring to the psychic life of +those who benefit by them.... The idea of God, the divine presence, +or any other form of inspiration, is no more strange to the mind of +the religious man than is for the <i>savant</i> the sudden conception +of a solution long<span class="pagenum" id="Page_34">[Pg 34]</span> sought for, or for the artist the vision of the +work which he meditates and of which he pursues the construction +with patience and tenacity.... Neither the invasion of the soul by +God, nor the ‘return’ of the mystics, has any resemblance to mental +disintegration.”</p> +</div> + +<p>It is not easy to get rid of God.</p> + +<p>Will you read what Jung says on this subject in the “Collected Papers +on Analytical Psychology,” edited by Dr. Constance E. Long:</p> + +<div class="blockquot"> + +<p>“The concept of God is simply a necessary psychological function.... +The <i>concensus gentium</i> has spoken of gods for æons past, and +will be speaking of them in æons to come. Beautiful and perfect as +man may think his reason, he may nevertheless assure himself that +it is only one of the possible mental functions, coinciding merely +with the corresponding side of the phenomena of the universe. All +around is the irrational, that which is not congruous with reason. +And this irrationalism is likewise a psychological function,<span class="pagenum" id="Page_35">[Pg 35]</span> namely +the absolute unconscious; whilst the function of consciousness is +essentially rational.... Heraclitus, the ancient, that really very +wise man, discovered the most wonderful of all psychological laws, +namely, the <i>regulating function of antithesis</i>. He termed this +enantiodromia’ (clashing together) by which he meant that at some time +everything meets with its opposite.... Man may not <i>identify</i> +himself with reason, for he is not wholly a rational being, and never +can or ever will become one. That is a fact of which every pedant of +civilization should take note. What is irrational cannot and may not +be stamped out. The gods cannot and may not die. Woe betide those men +who have disinfected heaven with rationalism; God-Almightiness has +entered into them, because they would not admit God as an absolute +function.... Only he escapes from the cruel law of enantiodromia who +knows how to separate himself from the unconscious—not by repressing +it, for then it seizes him from behind—<i>but by presenting it +visibly to himself as something that is totally different from +him</i>.... He must learn to differentiate<span class="pagenum" id="Page_36">[Pg 36]</span> in his thoughts between +what is the ego and what is the non-ego. The latter is the collective +psyche or absolute unconscious.... In order to differentiate the +psychological ego from the psychological non-ego, man must necessarily +stand <i>upon firm feet</i> in his ego-function....</p> + +<p>“Obviously the depreciation and repression of such a powerful function +as that of religion has serious consequences for the psychology of +the individual.... One period of skepticism came to a close with the +horrors of the French revolution. At the present time we are again +experiencing an ebullition of the unconscious destructive powers +of the collective psyche. The result is an unparalleled general +slaughter. That is just what the unconscious was tending towards. +This tendency had previously been inordinately strengthened by +the rationalism of modern life, which by depreciating everything +irrational caused the function of irrationalism to sink into the +unconscious....”</p> + +<p>“There is indeed no possible alternative but to acknowledge +irrationalism as a psychological function that is necessary and always +existent. Its results are not<span class="pagenum" id="Page_37">[Pg 37]</span> to be taken as concrete realities (that +would involve repression), but as <i>psychological realities</i>. They +are realities because they are <i>effective</i> things, that is, they +are <i>actualities</i>.”</p> +</div> + +<p>So we need not be ashamed to admit that we pray! In this grim period of +history, when the soul is face to face with itself and its brother as +it has never been, we may speak with a greater simplicity than in the +old conventionally-smiling days before the war. I pray—and so do you, +whoever you are, if only by groaning “Oh, God!” when you suffer. Prayer +is an instinct. Even an atheist will pray, if he finds himself beyond +human aid. A friend of mine who was killed at the front used to take +holy communion every morning, and he was doubtless a saner and better +soldier for it. One need not be a Roman Catholic to see the beauty of +that act of faith.</p> + +<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_38">[Pg 38]</span></p> + +<p>Whether God be a “dominant of the superpersonal unconscious,” a +psychological function, or a mathematical equation, makes not the +slightest difference to me. As William James would say, “He works.”</p> + +<p>And whether the souls of our dead live in us, as Fechner says, or +whether they are relics in the personal and collective unconscious, or +whether they are “concrete realities” that can materialize by using +astral and etheric substance, makes also not the slightest difference +to me. If you could know how utterly I am at peace about this whole +question!</p> + +<p>And many other differences appear, on close examination, to be mainly +differences of viewpoint and phraseology. The “astral world” of the +Theosophists, mediæval and modern, corresponds to a certain level of +the unconscious. “X” says in one<span class="pagenum" id="Page_39">[Pg 39]</span> of the Letters which follow, written +in 1917, that melancholy may be produced by the pressure of the unhappy +dead who make us fear. If you locate the dead in the unconscious, which +surges up in moments of passivity, the dead will have the same effect.</p> + +<p>Having given much of the leisure time of a laborious life to a study of +the theories and practices of mysticism and occultism, as formulated +by many different schools, I could write volumes (if I had the +inclination, which I have not) in tracing out the psychological roots +and the relations between these things. My own unconscious is rich with +such images. Some of the most striking parallels have not been written +about, so far as I know.</p> + +<p>And Jung seems to have covered, with the wide mantle of his +comprehension,<span class="pagenum" id="Page_40">[Pg 40]</span> even the frailties of those who believe in prophetic +dreams. He says:</p> + +<div class="blockquot"> + +<p>“The unconscious possesses possibilities of wisdom that are completely +closed to consciousness, for the unconscious has at its disposal not +only all the psychic contents that are under the threshold because +they have been forgotten or overlooked, but also the wisdom of the +experience of untold ages, deposited in the course of time and +lying potential in the human brain. The unconscious is continually +active, creating combinations of its materials; these serve to +indicate the <i>future path</i> of the individual. It creates +prospective combinations just as our consciousness does, only they are +considerably superior to the conscious combinations both in refinement +and extent. The unconscious may therefore be an unparalleled guide for +human beings....</p> + +<p>“The unconscious must contain all the material that has <i>not yet</i> +reached the level of consciousness. These are the germs of future +conscious contents.”</p> +</div> + +<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_41">[Pg 41]</span></p> + +<p>He seems to think that true prophecies are merely the result of +synthesis by the unconscious of tendencies (<i>whether in the personal +or universal unconscious</i>) significant for future occurrences. +Referring to Maeterlinck’s “inconscient supérieur,” he says of the +prophetic interpretation of dreams:</p> + +<div class="blockquot"> + +<p>“The aversion of the exact sciences against this sort of +thought-process which is hardly to be called phantastic is only an +<i>overcompensation</i> of the thousands of years old but all too +great inclination of man to believe in soothsaying.”</p> +</div> + +<p>I am told that the hearing of voices in the hypnogogic state indicates +“a slight tendency to dissociation.” Very well. Probably the voices +come from a deeper level than automatic writing, whatever the +inspiration of automatic writing may be.</p> + +<p>Now while the things which “X” in the<span class="pagenum" id="Page_42">[Pg 42]</span> following letters advised +America to do, before America came into the war, were the very things +which we did <i>after</i> we came into the war and which we could not +have done except as war measures, our entrance was not written down as +a specific prophecy in these letters. Any startling prophecy has always +had a tendency to shake me out of the passive state in which automatic +writing is possible. <i>But</i>—during the weeks from February to +April, 1917, in the hypnogogic state preceding sleep, I several times +heard, “We are coming into the war.” Of course I did not write that +down in the manuscript, as <i>it was not a part of the manuscript</i>. +What is heard is heard, what is written is written. I merely mention +it as a curious phenomenon for it was probably the synthesis of the +<i>deeper levels</i> of my unconscious. It was certainly the tragic<span class="pagenum" id="Page_43">[Pg 43]</span> +hope of my conscious mind; but the conscious alone would not have +produced a voice.</p> + +<p>If anybody wonders that I should admit hearing hypnogogic voices, +I can only say that I regard these things rather objectively and +impersonally. I never hear voices except when half-asleep. If my very +accurate memory has not slipped a cog, William James used to talk +freely of his hypnogogic experiences. The more we know about our little +personalities, the less monstrously important they seem. And the +“hearing of voices” has more than once played a respectable rôle in +history, before and after Moses.</p> + +<p>But I do not imagine that I have any prophetic mission, nor do I feel +in any hurry to “unite myself with the ocean of divinity,” nor feel any +impulse violently to turn my back upon the universal. There<span class="pagenum" id="Page_44">[Pg 44]</span> is a happy +mean, which makes for efficiency in life, for health and understanding.</p> + +<p>I have touched upon analytical psychology in this Introduction because +I am so constituted that I cannot publish this last volume of my +automatic writings without indicating my point of view, with the same +frankness as in former Introductions. Please do not blame science +because I have not lost through the analytic process my instinctive +belief in individual immortality. I assure you it has not been the +fault of science.</p> + +<p>If anyone objects that I have only touched the threads of this great +web of psychology which lead towards the subject of this book, I can +only say that this foreword being by way of preface to this book, no +other course was possible on account<span class="pagenum" id="Page_45">[Pg 45]</span> of the limitations of space and +artistic relevancy.</p> + +<p>Psychology as a method of healing I leave to the physicians, who have +written many books about it, containing bibliographies. And booksellers +have catalogues. Anyone interested can write to them.</p> + +<p>This is by way of excusing myself from answering letters of enquiry. I +have unselfishly and laboriously written so many hundreds of letters! +Now I want to write other things. The resolution of psychological +“complexes” frees energy for sublimation in work. It frees ideas for +use in art.</p> + +<p>Dr. Beatrice M. Hinkle, in the introduction to her translation of +Jung’s “Psychology of the Unconscious,” says that “this psychology +which is pervading all realms of thought ... seems destined to<span class="pagenum" id="Page_46">[Pg 46]</span> be a +psychological-philosophical system for the understanding and practical +advancement of human life.”</p> + +<p>So, having found a well whose waters were refreshing, I note the +fact—and pass on.</p> + +<p>The train of thought which the reader has followed in this Introduction +is the train of thought which led me—after some delay—to the +publication of the book.</p> + +<p>I am glad that these “Last Letters from the Living Dead Man” are a call +to courage, to restraint, to faith in the great and orderly future +of America and the world, a call to all those positive qualities so +gravely needed in these days of the rebuilding of Peace.</p> + +<p>For I do not believe that Bolshevism, or any other form of lunacy, will +find foothold in the United States. A nation with universal suffrage, +for man and woman,<span class="pagenum" id="Page_47">[Pg 47]</span> certainly has no incentive for a resort to insane +destruction. In the last State campaign it was interesting to watch the +reactions of women to the privileges and duties of suffrage. I watched +it only in one party, the Democratic, but it was doubtless everywhere +the same. There was an added dignity, a sense of new responsibility, +and always courtesy and real fellowship among the women and the men. +Its happening to correspond in time with the Fourth Liberty Loan +campaign, and the printing of casualty lists, made it all the more +significant. No, these level-headed, socially-responsible women will +never be swept away by collective insanity; and as the men who return +from the front will return to these women, their mothers, wives and +sisters, I do not think that we shall lose in peace what we have gained +in war.</p> + +<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_48">[Pg 48]</span></p> + +<p>And now—remembering always that this book was written between +February, 1917, and February, 1918—you may read the “Last Letters from +the Living Dead Man.”</p> + +<p class="right"> +<span class="allsmcap">ELSA BARKER</span></p> + +<p>New York, Easter Day, 1919.</p> + + +<hr class="chap x-ebookmaker-drop"> + +<div class="chapter"> +<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_49">[Pg 49]</span></p> + +<h2 class="nobreak" id="LETTER_I">LETTER I<br> +THE GENIUS OF AMERICA</h2> +</div> + + +<p class="right"> +<i>February 3, 1917.</i></p> + +<p class="nind"> +<span class="dropcap">I</span> WANT to write of America, land of my latest birth, land of the future.</p> + +<p>Great is the road that the Genius of America may travel, and her feet +have already passed the early stages of it.</p> + +<p>The Genius of America!</p> + +<p>Each land is watched over and its children guided—guided and moved—by +a Genius.</p> + +<p>Would you feel the Genius of America, go alone into the woods at +night, watch and listen and invoke. Perhaps the answer may come, its +recognition of you, your recognition of it.</p> + +<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_50">[Pg 50]</span></p> + +<p>If you are one of those who can hear the words which the Great Ones +speak in the silence, perhaps you will hear something with the ears of +your soul. If so, do not hasten to divulge the message, but treasure it +in your heart; for that which is treasured in the heart can sometimes +be felt and understood by the hearts of others.</p> + +<p>If you are one of those who will serve willingly, the secret of your +heart may be shared in silence with those who can hear in the silence.</p> + +<p>The hour approaches when the mission of this land may be manifested. +The hour approaches when the Genius of this land shall force its will +upon this land. That will not be an easy task. So many wills have +sought to wrest the reins from the guiding hand; so many eyes, looking +in so many directions, have seen so many goals.<span class="pagenum" id="Page_51">[Pg 51]</span> But there is one will +so strong that it can, when its hour is come, gather up the wills of +men as a strong wind gathers a mass of loosely-lying straws and sweeps +them along.</p> + +<p>You know not the power of a will that has God behind it. You know not +the power of a purpose that has God behind it and the future before it. +Those who get in the way of the Genius of this land will be broken, +like straws that would resist the wind.</p> + +<p>I have watched from my unseen place the labors of many. I have helped +unseen with my faith to strengthen the hearts of many. I shall wait now +unseen till the act of destiny is accomplished.</p> + +<p>You who have followed me from my first gropings in the twilight of the +new life, before the clearness came; you who have followed me on my +journeys<span class="pagenum" id="Page_52">[Pg 52]</span> among the battlefields, both in and above the world, follow +me yet a little further, with your minds ajar for the entrance of the +truth I have to tell you, the advice I have to give you. For my advice +is disinterested as the rain, and my truth is offered as freely as the +light.</p> + +<p>I have come a long way since I laid down my body a few brief years ago, +years of a crowded brevity, in which the world has moved as fast as I, +and sometimes with more pain. For he who knows the purpose of his pain +can bear it better than the child who knows only that he suffers.</p> + +<p>I should have spoken to you before, but you would not let me. Child! +Would you stand in the way with your personal wishes, and your +shrinkings that are also wishes of a negative kind?</p> + +<p>Blocked by your will to avoid this labor, I sought another entrance; +but it was too<span class="pagenum" id="Page_53">[Pg 53]</span> much encumbered by prejudices and preconceived ideas, +and all the litter of mental fragments that had accumulated through +years of residence in a creed-bound place. You who have dwelt but +briefly in many tents have no obstructions at your door, save such as +are placed by your will, and those I now sweep away.</p> + +<p>I shall pass in and out, and speak to you as I choose.</p> + + +<hr class="chap x-ebookmaker-drop"> + +<div class="chapter"> +<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_54">[Pg 54]</span></p> + +<h2 class="nobreak" id="LETTER_II">LETTER II<br> +FEAR NOT</h2> +</div> + + +<p class="right"> +<i>February 8, 1917.</i></p> + +<p class="nind"> +<span class="dropcap">D</span>ID I not tell you many months ago that the soul of Abraham Lincoln +kept watch above this land that he died to save from disruption, and +that he would keep vigil until America should have passed through her +next great trial? You questioned then what that trial would be. Do you +question now? And yet you do not know.</p> + +<p>Slowly the months have gone by, receding into the past. When, in the +spring of 1915, you saw in vision the German Emperor in spiked helmet +standing opposite to Uncle Sam in his shirt-sleeves,<span class="pagenum" id="Page_55">[Pg 55]</span> did you not +suppose that it would come to this? You are wise to keep such visions +to yourself.</p> + +<p>Do not fancy that this war will end without greater changes than the +world has ever known before. When I told you nearly two years ago that +the battle between the powers of good and evil had been won in the +invisible regions, I knew because my Teacher told me so; but do not +believe that the new age can dawn without greater trouble and greater +changes than you can now imagine. Birth is change and birth is painful, +and birth is bloody and exhausting. The pains that have gone before are +only the pains of labor.</p> + +<p>The stars in their courses fight for the new race.</p> + +<p>I have written of the bloody fields of Europe. Now I would write of +America<span class="pagenum" id="Page_56">[Pg 56]</span> and her future, her near and her far future; for the sun is +approaching the Eastern horizon and the dawn clouds are already tinged +with the coming day.</p> + +<p>America, do not despair! Your destiny is assured. In the storms to +come, think of the freshness after the storm, when the ground shall +smell sweet and birds shall sing. For birds will sing to the children +of the new age.</p> + +<p>In the midst of changes there will come a lull. The world will say, “It +is over, the old things will return, and all will be as before.” But +nothing will ever be exactly as it was before. In the lull you shall +draw breath, and make ready for other changes. Yes, many things will be +changed, even the hearts of men.</p> + +<p>The world has known terror. Without experience of terror, without the +poise that comes from the facing of terror undaunted,<span class="pagenum" id="Page_57">[Pg 57]</span> the world could +not face the future without failure. Is there anything now, after +thirty months of war, that could surprise the world? Is there anything +that the world could not face?</p> + +<p>Oh, remember that you are immortal, and that you who go out of life +will come back again, strengthened by the rest in the invisible! For a +change of place is a rest of consciousness. To those whose nerves are +weary, wise doctors prescribe a change. A rest in the invisible worlds +is more refreshing than a summer in the mountains. Do not fear death. I +passed through death, and I am more rested now than a strong man in the +morning. I would not go back to my old body. When I want a body again I +shall build a new one. I know the process of building, having built so +many before.</p> + +<p>Be joyous with me. A wise man once<span class="pagenum" id="Page_58">[Pg 58]</span> said that only the unendurable is +tragic. The world, and the souls of the world, can endure the change +that is coming. Have not wars prepared them for it? That is why wars +had to be.</p> + +<p>America is rich. Her vaults are full of gold, her mines are full of +ore, and her fresh soil is full of richness. Shall she fear a future +in which labor can procure all things for the body, and faith can +procure all things for the soul? The history of this land is a history +of faith. Did not Columbus start across the trackless ocean, led only +by the star of his faith? Did not your ancestors follow, led by their +faith in the future? The past has gone back to God, it is safe as a +dead man; but the future is coming to you, and your faith shall make it +sure.</p> + +<p>Fear naught. In the early days of this land your forefathers slept in +quiet,<span class="pagenum" id="Page_59">[Pg 59]</span> though the red man lurked in the forest, and hunger lurked in +the failure of harvests, and men and children could only be winter-warm +when trees had been felled for fuel. Now you fear famines of coal? The +earth is heavy with coal. You fear famines of wheat, when your muscles +grow fat for lack of exercise. They who came first to this land had +varied reasons for fear, but you have no reasons for fear. Labor is +sweet. The child who makes labor of play can vouch for the truth of +that saying. Can you not then make play of your labor? When I was a +child I built houses of blocks. I longed to be building. I dug ditches +in the garden. I made boats of chips and sailed them on a puddle. I +planted seeds.</p> + +<p>And learning? In the libraries of the world and in the brains of men +is stored the learning of the ages. The new age<span class="pagenum" id="Page_60">[Pg 60]</span> will not lack the +archives of all ages. Though paper is less enduring than parchment, it +will last over into the new age. Fear not.</p> + +<p>By hints I convey to your mind that many changes will come. What then? +All progress is change. Go out with it to meet the future, with a smile +on your face and a song on your lips. The future wears a rose in its +buttonhole, as your Vagrom Angel would say.</p> + + +<hr class="chap x-ebookmaker-drop"> + +<div class="chapter"> +<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_61">[Pg 61]</span></p> + +<h2 class="nobreak" id="LETTER_III">LETTER III<br> +THE PROMISE OF SPRING</h2> +</div> + + +<p class="right"> +<i>February 17, 1917.</i></p> + +<p class="nind"> +<span class="dropcap">W</span>HEN you learn to think of life as a whole, of which you are a part +containing in yourself the potentialities of the whole, then you +will look upon these great changes with joy. The One must sometimes +sacrifice itself to Itself, and by elimination secure a new lease of +life. The whole—call it the race, or the earth-spirit, or what you +will—may grow too fat and lazy, as a man may grow too large to move +about with ease, and then by war among the organs, by fever, fasting or +remedies, the equilibrium is restored, and he starts again a new man, +ready to face the future.</p> + +<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_62">[Pg 62]</span></p> + +<p>Grim, does it seem? But who told you that the purposes of life were +always smiling? In the deeps of the earth and in the deeps of man are +dark substances.</p> + +<p>The cold of winter is a hardship for those who expose themselves to the +elements; but winter is the ebb-tide of that changing sea of life whose +flood-tide is the summer. Rhythm, always rhythm.</p> + +<p>I would not have you discouraged by the winter of the race, for the +spring will come and the roses will bloom again. March winds! They are +followed by April showers and Mayflowers. We are now in February.</p> + +<p>When the skies are dark and the snows fall, we gather round the fire +and think of the future, when the flowers shall bloom again and green +grass shall cover the earth and birds shall sing in the trees. The sun +“crosses the line” in March when the winds<span class="pagenum" id="Page_63">[Pg 63]</span> blow, and enters the sign +of the Ram, and the Zodiac is traversed again by the great light-giver +the Sun. Do you shiver and grow afraid when the Equinox approaches?</p> + +<p>The soul, too, has its winter of materialism and its ideal spring.</p> + +<p>I have looked at the world from the outside, and I see no cause for +despair. I have looked at the soul from the inside, and I see great +cause for rejoicing.</p> + +<p>You look forward to the end of the war, but the soul must battle to the +end of its journey. So long as the soul is cased in matter there will +be wars enough, for the greatest struggles are the soul’s struggles +with itself. I have told you this before. Sometimes it goes out to +fight, sometimes it goes in; the sword will not rust in the scabbard.</p> + +<p>Think less of yourself and think more<span class="pagenum" id="Page_64">[Pg 64]</span> of the race. You lose the vision +of the whole by regarding too closely the parts, by regarding too +closely yourself that is only one of the parts. Think of yourself as +the race, and think of the race as yourself; then yourself becomes the +race, and the race becomes yourself; “the Universe grows I.”</p> + +<p>There was once a God so great that the cells of his body were minor +gods. You may become so great that the cells of your body will be glad +to sacrifice themselves to your welfare. By renouncing the will to +live, you may make yourself immortal. By renouncing the will to joy, +you may become joyous.</p> + +<p>Once I desired to be a great man. Now when I only desire that Man shall +be great, I have increased in stature myself.</p> + +<p>Once I desired to be loved; but now when I love for love’s sake and not +for<span class="pagenum" id="Page_65">[Pg 65]</span> my own sake, I am loved by a multitude. Surely I found my life by +losing it, and the words of the Master were justified.</p> + +<p>I look down at the world as I once looked down at my garden. I see that +the grass is sprouting and I know that seeds are in the ground. I have +planted seeds in the hearts of men that shall germinate and reach up +towards the sunshine, for I had faith in the spring.</p> + +<p>For a while I have left Europe to itself, and have come back to the +land I love best. I have journeyed from State to State, and have +watched the wills of our legislators. They too are aware that a Force +is at work through them. They feel the responsibility of their place, +they feel themselves as moving parts of the great whole whose name is +America. The Flag is the symbol of their consecration.</p> + +<p>I have walked in the woods, where the<span class="pagenum" id="Page_66">[Pg 66]</span> spirits of the land fore-gather +for counsels which the newspapers do not report. They too are aware of +their consecration. They strengthen you with their faith. When I lived +as a man in America I did not know America. To know the meaning of home +we must wander.</p> + +<p>I am all for unity now. Do not let yourselves be weakened by fear of +the parts. America is a whole, and as a whole she must work. To fuse +these many races together is the mission of the present hour. Do not +lend your hearts to division.</p> + +<p>I see a great leader of men who shall arise in this land. His mission +will be the union of races. He will be a teacher and a prophet.</p> + + +<hr class="chap x-ebookmaker-drop"> + +<div class="chapter"> +<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_67">[Pg 67]</span></p> + +<h2 class="nobreak" id="LETTER_IV">LETTER IV<br> +THE DIET OF GOLD</h2> +</div> + + +<p class="right"> +<i>March 10, 1917.</i></p> + +<p class="nind"> +<span class="dropcap">T</span>HE very influences that now tend to disrupt this country will later +draw it together. The many will find their meeting-point in the One. +That idea of national unity must be fostered, even to the extent of +patient tolerance of racial temperaments. Those who are in the process +of being separated from their old race and amalgamated with the new +race, feel the strain of the change. It irritates them and their +blood protests, even when their wills bid them forge new bonds for +themselves. Few “hyphenated Americans”<span class="pagenum" id="Page_68">[Pg 68]</span> would be willing to go bodily +back to their old allegiance.</p> + +<p>America is the most interesting of all countries, and we who see it +from this side of the airy frontier see it in historical perspective. +The view that is nearest to our point of view is that of your present +Chief Executive. His eyes are far-seeing. He anticipates the clearer +sight that will one day be his, when he has finished his work.</p> + +<p>Our country is suffering at this moment, in March, of the year of our +Lord nineteen hundred and seventeen, from an indigestion of gold. You +have swallowed more gold than you can assimilate, and your organs are +congested. If to restore the equilibrium, some of this gold should be +regurgitated, by war or by other means, do not in the weariness that +follows fancy that the nation is going to die.</p> + +<p>Do not be shocked by my figures of<span class="pagenum" id="Page_69">[Pg 69]</span> speech. I want to get into your +consciousness an understanding of facts and conditions as they exist.</p> + +<p>You cannot feed on gold. “Gold is a medium of exchange.” When it is +merely hoarded it has lost its relation to life. A miser nation is a +sadder subject for contemplation than a miser man, with his long claws +and his gloating eyes. He may think, the miser man, to secure himself +from the dangers of the future by amassing gold for its own sake. A +miser nation may think that by amassing gold for its own sake it can +save itself from the financial dangers threatening the world after +these years of war.</p> + +<p>But the miser, known as such, is in danger of being robbed and +murdered. And the miser nation is in danger of being attacked and +looted by other nations.</p> + +<p>You Americans want to be generous to<span class="pagenum" id="Page_70">[Pg 70]</span> the homeless and foodless people +of Europe; but your generosity has not yet deprived of one square meal +the hundred-million-headed being that is America.</p> + +<p>I do not care so much what you do with your gold. But I care much what +you do with your food. You are not alchemists that you can make gold +potable. You are humans with delicate stomachs. Even a hen will not lay +eggs for you unless she is well fed. If she protests, you can punish +her by eating her; but the luckiest break of her wish-bone will not +produce for you another hen. Better conserve her labor power by gifts +of grain, and have your eggs for breakfast and for hatching. She has +periods of laziness when she wants to sit still; but put a few of her +own eggs under her, and watch for results. Later I shall tell you of +other but no less practical ways of ensuring a supply of breakfasts.</p> + + +<hr class="chap x-ebookmaker-drop"> + +<div class="chapter"> +<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_71">[Pg 71]</span></p> + +<h2 class="nobreak" id="LETTER_V">LETTER V<br> +CONTINGENT FEES</h2> +</div> + + +<p class="right"> +<i>March 10, 1917.</i></p> + +<p class="nind"> +<span class="dropcap">T</span>O-DAY I heard that a certain rich man (unmindful of the camel and the +needle’s eye), supposing that the letters from this Living Dead Man had +been profitable to you, that there was “money in them,” was considering +the question of whether he should financially back a medium who +stood ready to declare that she was in communication with me, that I +repudiated the books written through you, and stood sponsor for certain +manuscripts written “through” her, as my only genuine messenger to the +world.</p> + +<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_72">[Pg 72]</span></p> + +<p>I join in your laughter, at your supposed “profitable” investment in +the securities of the other world, and at the eagerness to get aboard +a sea-of-ether-worthy ship exhibited by people who have not paid their +fare.</p> + +<p>I may as well tell you now that this country and some others are +scattered over with supposed “communications” from me. It would seem +that my writing arms are as numerous as the feet of a centipede. It +would also seem by the style of some of these supposed communications, +by their contents and their contradictions, that I have as many minds +as Indra has eyes.</p> + +<p>Even the elementals of the ouija board do not contradict themselves so +frequently as these amanuenses make me contradict myself. I think you +will have to trademark me.</p> + +<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_73">[Pg 73]</span></p> + +<p>After the serious nature of my recent letters, it relaxes me to jest.</p> + +<p>If you include this letter in the book, please head it “Contingent +Fees.”</p> + + +<hr class="chap x-ebookmaker-drop"> + +<div class="chapter"> +<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_74">[Pg 74]</span></p> + +<h2 class="nobreak" id="LETTER_VI">LETTER VI<br> +THE THREE APPEALS</h2> +</div> + + +<p class="right"> +<i>March 11, 1917.</i></p> + +<p class="nind"> +<span class="dropcap">I</span> STAND outside the world and look inside the hearts of men. I see more +than I saw when I was a man among them. Had I then looked as deep into +my own heart as I now look into theirs, I should have seen the hearts +of my fellow beings reflected in my own, for we differ from one another +as one insect differs from another. There are differences between +insects.</p> + +<p>I look into your hearts, O men! and this is what I see: Ideals and +hypocrisy, self-interest and altruism, hunger and satiety.</p> + +<p>Shall I, in offering advice, appeal to<span class="pagenum" id="Page_75">[Pg 75]</span> your ideals, your +self-interest, or your hunger? The opposite three would never spur you +to action along the lines I would have you spurred.</p> + + +<hr class="chap x-ebookmaker-drop"> + +<div class="chapter"> +<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_76">[Pg 76]</span></p> + +<h2 class="nobreak" id="LETTER_VII">LETTER VII<br> +THE BUILDERS</h2> +</div> + + +<p class="right"> +<i>March 22, 1917.</i></p> + +<p class="nind"> +<span class="dropcap">I</span> HAVE promised to offer you advice as to how you may restore your +equilibrium. Use much of this superfluity of gold in rebuilding +devastated Europe. Give her credits and give her food. You who can work +in the fields, raise food to feed Europe. You who can build, give the +labor of your hands wherever it is needed. You who are discontented +here, go back to that Europe which gave you birth. By so doing you will +give yourselves a new point of view, and you will give yourselves a new +interest. A new interest is a new lease of life.</p> + +<p>Make sacrifices. In saying that, I have<span class="pagenum" id="Page_77">[Pg 77]</span> two objects in view, the +effect on the world and the effect on yourselves.</p> + +<p>To work for the ideal is sometimes more practical than to work for what +is called the real.</p> + +<p>When I tell you to rebuild Europe, you can take it as ideal advice +or practical advice, depending on your point of view. It is ideal +because Europe needs rebuilding; it is practical because just now +and for a time to come America needs to get her mind on something +outside herself. We give that advice to individuals when they are too +self-centred. There is so much discontent and so much uncertainty that +anything which can catch and hold the attention of masses of men, which +can make them forget themselves, may enable them to be used by the +Genius of the race, which works for the welfare of the race as a whole.</p> + +<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_78">[Pg 78]</span></p> + +<p>Lend your money to Europe, and do not ask usurious interest. Yes, you +can take interest, for money has earning power, and the laborer—even +the laborer Gold—is worthy of his hire. But help by your generous +lendings at low interest to lessen the awful burden of taxation for the +people of Europe, which makes also for discontent and discouragement.</p> + +<p>Go to Europe, many of you, that you may see what war does to a country, +what it might do to your country should you selfishly expose yourselves +to a desire on the part of outsiders to take from you by force that +which you have so skilfully acquired.</p> + +<p>Go, that you may see and feel, as you can only see and feel face to +face, the spirit of self-sacrifice and national devotion which has +animated the people of Europe in this long war. They have found<span class="pagenum" id="Page_79">[Pg 79]</span> their +souls, but you have not yet found your soul.</p> + +<p>There are engineers in this country who are less needed here than they +will be needed in Europe. There are specialists in all the branches +of science who are more needed there than here. We have specialists +enough. We can spare a few of them.</p> + +<p>Build ships. Build more ships. Keep the men occupied. Give them +an objective. Do not let them brood. An idle brain is the devil’s +workshop. If you have not work enough, make work. There are things +enough to be done. Build ships.</p> + +<p>Now in regard to your management of railroads and other public +utilities. The day for government control was heralded when the threat +of a strike came that would have, if put into effect, blocked the +wheels of the nation. All those public utilities whose blocked wheels +could<span class="pagenum" id="Page_80">[Pg 80]</span> threaten the national life and the movements of men should +be managed by the government. This is not socialism, or any other +<i>ism</i>. You who have stock in them, do not take alarm. A way can be +found that will satisfy you.</p> + +<p>Think of the good of the whole, for you who are a part cannot prosper +without the welfare of the whole. This is not cant. It is a sort of +race biology. I look down and see you as a great being, and I prescribe +for you as a being, a race-unity, not as a few individuals here and +there. The cells in the body of the race-being must all be working +together. Get a unit of consciousness, as a race. Yield yourselves to +the consciousness of the race-unit. Be as individual as you please, but +be individual parts. Get into balance with other individuals, positive +and negative.</p> + +<p>Make the rebuilding of Europe an objective<span class="pagenum" id="Page_81">[Pg 81]</span> point. Make it possible for +many discontented workers to go to work in Europe. You may say that the +armies of Europe, when released from military service, will furnish +workers enough; but there cannot be too many. There is a double object +in this: the object of getting work done, and that of the psychological +effect upon the worker.</p> + +<p>I wish I could get into your minds by infusion the state of +consciousness that is mine. I wish I could make you see that separation +is death and that unity is life.</p> + +<p>I have spoken of government control of railroads, but that is only +the beginning. There should be governmental handling of food. Begin +gradually, one thing after another. It is the destiny of the world to +go in that direction. You cannot block the wheels of that chariot.</p> + +<p><i>Serve if you hope to survive</i> would be<span class="pagenum" id="Page_82">[Pg 82]</span> a good motto. You cannot +survive if you do not serve—all of you. I like that figure of the cell +which is a part of the race-being. It is the way I see you.</p> + +<p class="space-above2"> +Just a word about nervous diseases. Yes, it is related to what I have +been saying. When at last the let-up comes after the unnatural strain +of war, the minds of men in going back, or in attempting to go back to +their normal state, may find themselves unable immediately to adjust +to the changed conditions. For a long time the brains of men and women +have been stimulated by the coffee of concerted action; when they are +thrown back on themselves they may relax too much.</p> + +<p>Or, on the other hand, an unnatural excitement may drive them into +all kinds of excesses. Have you ever seen victims of mania who could +not rest, who had lost the<span class="pagenum" id="Page_83">[Pg 83]</span> ability to rest? They walk up and down, +and drum with their feet, and clench their hands. So many men and +women may be, after this war. There is certain to be an excess of love +excitement, and work is a good panacea for that complaint.</p> + +<p>Then again, after years of war, years in which many have not known in +the morning whether they would be alive at night, they may retain the +habit of dread. They may fear to rest and fear to relax. Thus they may +welcome any excitement, as a substitute for the stimulus to which they +have been accustomed.</p> + +<p>That is another reason why I would send Americans to labor with the +laborers of Europe. Not that the American working man is phlegmatic, +far from it; but with his mind unaccustomed to fear anything, except +the loss of his job and consequent hunger, he will have an effect +of<span class="pagenum" id="Page_84">[Pg 84]</span> confidence and hope on those around him. The American likes to +feel that he is leading, and in what better way can he indulge that +propensity than in leading his associates to hope?</p> + +<p>You have no idea—you cannot have an idea—of the great depression that +will follow this war for a short while. It will be the relaxation, +the letting go. Always after war the ebb-tide is followed by great +activity; but it is that ebb-tide which we have to consider.</p> + +<p>You in America will feel it. You have become accustomed to seeing gold +flow towards these shores. When the stream lessens, you will have to +combat the tendency to fear that lessening. Panics are like personal +fear, intensified by mass.</p> + +<p>The world is drawing close together, and what influences a part +influences the whole.</p> + +<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_85">[Pg 85]</span></p> + +<p>After the war will also come an opening of the psychic senses of men, +everywhere. This, while good in itself, may become an added danger. +Prophets, true and false, will arise everywhere, with many remedies for +the diseases of souls and of bodies.</p> + +<p>If I may make another suggestion, it would be that those who have +psychic awakening should think twice before proclaiming the fact. It +is a new sense that is coming into manifestation; but as the opening +of the eyes in an early stage of evolution probably revealed as many +dangers as blessings, so the new sense will reveal dangers. Do not try +to close the new sense, but do not be carried away by it. Remember that +it will be practically general, and like every new sense it will be +defective for a long time. It will reveal false things as well as true. +If a man opened his eyes for the first time upon a<span class="pagenum" id="Page_86">[Pg 86]</span> harmless tree, he +might mistake it for a monster.</p> + +<p>Restraint in all things, moderation in all things, even in the +laudable desire to action. Weigh and measure. Prove before accepting +anything—prove by reason and by intuition if you cannot wait for proof +by practice. Weigh and measure what I say, as well as what the wildest +new prognosticator says. Discourage hysteria. A wave of hysteria is +likely to sweep over the world.</p> + +<p>As revolution follows revolution, the startled inhabitants of the world +may tell themselves that nothing in the universe is stable, that all is +going to destruction, and that as they cannot save themselves from what +seems to be universal chaos, they may as well get all the pleasurable +excitement possible out of the passing moment. Restraint, restraint!</p> + +<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_87">[Pg 87]</span></p> + +<p>I see women afraid to bear children because of the uncertainty of +the morrow. I see men afraid to marry because of the uncertainty of +domesticity. I see farmers hesitate to plant because of the uncertainty +of the harvest. Again I say, be not afraid.</p> + +<p>If you sow, you shall reap. If you marry, you shall build a home. If +you have children, the race will protect them—and you are a part of +the race.</p> + +<p>Restraint! Fearlessness!</p> + + +<hr class="chap x-ebookmaker-drop"> + +<div class="chapter"> +<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_88">[Pg 88]</span></p> + +<h2 class="nobreak" id="LETTER_VIII">LETTER VIII<br> +THE WORLD OF MIND</h2> +</div> + + +<p class="right"> +<i>March 24, 1917.</i></p> + +<p class="nind"> +<span class="dropcap">I</span> WISH that more people of sane, sound mind would experiment in +telepathic communication. I know there is any amount of uncoordinated +and half-serious playing with phenomena; but with scientific accuracy +of observation and scientific precision in recording data, not only +the body of <i>sensible</i> literature on these subjects would be +increased, but the habits of careful observation and precision in +reporting supernormal facts would be developed in the experimentalists.</p> + +<p>You who write for me, continue to make and to record experiments. You +are almost<span class="pagenum" id="Page_89">[Pg 89]</span> too cautious, but most persons are not cautious enough.</p> + +<p>Explain the necessary conditions of passivity and activity between +those working together. Though the best results are often obtained +by you alone, yet the testimony of one person is not so convincing +as the testimony of several who have witnessed and taken part in the +same phenomena. But you are right in hesitating to take on the psychic +conditions of insincere and merely curious people who would like to +work with you.</p> + +<p>The great difficulty with most persons is that they cannot make +themselves sufficiently negative <i>for the time being</i>. When the +experiments are over they can and should become equally positive. They +can shift from one pole to the other, and they must do so if they wish +to preserve their physical health and balance.</p> + +<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_90">[Pg 90]</span></p> + +<p>But bear in mind that the influences from this side are good and bad, +even as the influences in the world are; and if you feel that any +“presence” is hostile, at once banish it and become positive. After any +approach by an undesirable influence, you should not for some hours let +yourself become negative. Go for a walk, or attack some difficult piece +of work, or read a book that demands mental activity in order to grasp +its meaning.</p> + +<p>You live in a sea of mind, as well as in a psychic sea; they +interpenetrate, and they interpenetrate with the physical; but in +working through and with them, keep them as distinct as possible.</p> + +<p>I work more and more in the mental world, and less and less in the +astral; but the majority of my readers will not know exactly what I +mean by that statement. There is a greater difference between the<span class="pagenum" id="Page_91">[Pg 91]</span> +astral and the mental than there is between the astral and the physical.</p> + +<p>Do not despise the astral. Its dynamics are of colossal import. But +cultivate more and more the purely mental, because the astral in all of +you is developed beyond the mental.</p> + +<p>In my former writings I have told you something of the dangers of the +astral. Now I want to tell you some of the more obvious dangers of the +mental.</p> + +<p>Those who learn that they can create in mind need to develop a sense +of responsibility. They are too reckless in demonstrating their +power. Remember that as you go up in the planes of being you get into +subtler and subtler regions, and strength increases with the degree of +subtlety—not the reverse, as you would naturally suppose.</p> + +<p>One of the greatest temptations of the<span class="pagenum" id="Page_92">[Pg 92]</span> mental world is that of the +creation of falsehoods. By stating that which is not true, you project +into the realm of mind a picture that has a certain permanency. It may +deceive others, but in time it will deceive you, its creator. Those who +speak falsely cannot perceive truth. Those who create false pictures +in the mental world will be deceived by those very pictures; they will +reap the effects of the causes they have set up.</p> + +<p>Have you not known people who were always being deceived by their +“friends”? They are generally those who have left deceiving pictures +behind themselves. There are people who cannot discriminate between the +false and the true. They deceive and are deceived. Those who deceive +are always deceived, whatever their supposed intellect may be.</p> + +<p>And I would say to those to whom I<span class="pagenum" id="Page_93">[Pg 93]</span> now suggest experiments with +clairvoyance and telepathy, that if they have planted the seeds of +falsehood they will reap a harvest of deceptive appearances. Test +yourselves in that way, you who believe yourselves to be sincere. You +may learn something of value regarding your own karma. (Yes, I will +use Theosophic or Indian terms when they express my meaning. Those +who re-write the Oriental philosophies in western terms can pass for +original only with the ignorant.)</p> + +<p>What the new race needs most of all is truth. Modern science is +preparing the world for the fearless facing of truth. The man who toils +over a microscope that he may observe and record some <i>fact</i> in +nature, is more the servant of God than the man who with sanctimonious +face tells his fellow creatures what they must <i>not</i> do;<span class="pagenum" id="Page_94">[Pg 94]</span> for his +work at least is positive in its results.</p> + +<p>There are too many “thou shalt nots”; too few “I shalls.”</p> + +<p>The new race will develop a wide tolerance. It will discourage +undesirable things more by ignoring them than by attacking them. By +attacking a thing we give it power.</p> + +<p>Work more and more in the world of mind. The results in the physical +will be immense.</p> + + +<hr class="chap x-ebookmaker-drop"> + +<div class="chapter"> +<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_95">[Pg 95]</span></p> + +<h2 class="nobreak" id="LETTER_IX">LETTER IX<br> +AMERICA’S GOOD FRIDAY</h2> +</div> + + +<p class="right"> +<i>April 6, 1917.</i></p> + +<p class="nind"> +<span class="dropcap">I</span>T is past midnight. It is Good Friday. Momentous decisions for the +world and for all time are heavy in the souls of men.</p> + +<p>On the day that this day stands for, in the long ago, a man (who +was also a god) stood forth alone for the ideas of love and human +brotherhood. At last, after all these years, the thing for which he +died may be realized. But there was a crucifixion on that Friday, +centuries ago.</p> + +<p>I have brought you from a far-away shore that you might witness a great +struggle<span class="pagenum" id="Page_96">[Pg 96]</span> in the souls of men. You have arrived at a centre.<a id="FNanchor_1" href="#Footnote_1" class="fnanchor">[1]</a></p> + +<p>To-day, in thousands of churches throughout Christendom, prayers will +be offered to the god-man who died that the god in man might live. +To-day in millions of hearts the cross will be set up.</p> + +<p>It is so still here at midnight, at a few minutes past midnight on this +day of days.</p> + +<p>Christianity has arisen, and presses forward to Golgotha to witness an +event.</p> + +<p>Pray! Prayer is the affirmation by the soul of its unity with the One. +War is the affirmation of the soul of its separateness from many.</p> + +<p>Love your enemies. It is the only way that you can conquer them.</p> + + +<div class="footnotes"><h3>FOOTNOTES:</h3> + +<div class="footnote"> + +<p class="nind"><a id="Footnote_1" href="#FNanchor_1" class="label">[1]</a> +I had arrived in New York a few hours before after a long +sojourn in California.</p> + +</div> +</div> + + +<hr class="chap x-ebookmaker-drop"> + +<div class="chapter"> +<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_97">[Pg 97]</span></p> +<h2 class="nobreak" id="LETTER_X">LETTER X<br> +THE CRUCIBLE</h2> +</div> + + +<p class="right"> +<i>April 12, 1917.</i></p> + +<p class="nind"> +<span class="dropcap">L</span>ET us speak a little of this initiation through which the race is +passing. Always the trials precede the attainment.</p> + +<p>When these wars are over there will be a new world, for the souls +of men will have been baptized with the fire and the blood. America +must have her part in it. To her also must come the trials and the +attainment. Watch and pray.</p> + +<p>Some day I will send you back to commune with the soul of the Old +World—some day <i>we</i> will send you back. It is another Europe you +will find, a Europe tried by fire, and some of it will be fine steel,<span class="pagenum" id="Page_98">[Pg 98]</span> +and some of it will be clinkers in the furnace, for the fire proves the +metal, and separates the metal from the slag.</p> + +<p>From before the war to this day, the battles of the earth have been +enacted also in your soul, the blood and the fire, the pain and the +travail. You too have passed through the fiery furnace.</p> + +<p>Long ago, when you identified your soul with the soul of the world, +you took upon yourself the trials of the world, the initiatory trials. +You also called down upon yourself the weight of your old karma, the +effects of the causes you had set up through the ages. That you are at +rest for a time means only that you have worked yourself free from a +little of the load. Had you not done it now, you would have had to do +it in the future. Rejoice for every trial that brings you nearer to the +goal. And this I say for all men.</p> + +<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_99">[Pg 99]</span></p> + +<p>If I speak of the world now, instead of that part only that we call +America, it is to identify the part with the whole. If I speak of you +personally, it is to identify you with the whole.</p> + +<p>Back in that Europe to which you will go, you will find two classes, +those who have become fine steel, and those who have become refuse. You +will know the one from the other.</p> + +<p>They will welcome you back, for you have passed through the fire with +them. They will welcome your country, too, for it now turns its face to +the fire.</p> + +<p>Be not discouraged by dismal prophecies. Man does not live by bread +alone. If you have less to eat, your bodies will grow finer. If you +have more to do, your minds and spirits will expand. Few of you work to +your full capacity. The unit of force that is man may generate much<span class="pagenum" id="Page_100">[Pg 100]</span> +energy, drawing it up from the deeps of himself at the call of need or +of will.</p> + +<p>Work harder now. Once I told you to rest more, but the laborers are +called to the vineyard. The hour of rest will come again, when the day +draws near its close.</p> + +<p>In entering into the war, my country, put away all rancor, and fight +for the right in which there is no rancor. Hate not. The hour for hate +is past. (I say this, knowing that Hate and Fear, the mother of Hate, +will come and challenge your souls.)</p> + +<p>I do not hate, and I do not fear, and I shall stay with you until the +day draws to its close. Are you sorry now that you let me speak again? +When fear comes to your house, I will speak to you of courage. When +hate shall menace you, I will turn it into love. I have found the +Philosopher’s<span class="pagenum" id="Page_101">[Pg 101]</span> Stone that can transmute base metals into gold.</p> + +<p>Hate will be turned to love in this land where the Eagle cries. Listen +to the cry of the Eagle. It is a free bird, and it flies high. Its +message has only been hinted at, in the years that have yet been +numbered. The Eagle will teach freedom. They will listen—across the +sea.</p> + +<p>America is indeed the melting-pot of nations. I can find no better +figure of speech. The German-American who is loyal to America now, +who hides the tragedy in his heart behind a brave face, may also come +through the furnace fine steel.</p> + +<p>I am glad you know that they suffer. Hold the loyal ones in your heart, +with all other loyal Americans. So you will help in the process of +melting. To some of them the tragedy will open the doors of initiation. +Their loyalty to a pledge is<span class="pagenum" id="Page_102">[Pg 102]</span> a finer trial than the fire of a +battlefield. Those who are loyal must not be made pariahs. Of those who +are disloyal I say nothing, but leave them to the Law.</p> + +<p>The initiatory process! It has the earth in its grasp. There are those +whom you love that it has in its grasp, too. They suffer, as you have +suffered. But they shall find peace.</p> + + +<hr class="chap x-ebookmaker-drop"> + +<div class="chapter"> +<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_103">[Pg 103]</span></p> + +<h2 class="nobreak" id="LETTER_XI">LETTER XI<br> +MAKE CLEAN YOUR HOUSE</h2> +</div> + + +<p class="right"> +<i>May 4, 1917.</i></p> + +<p class="nind"> +<span class="dropcap">D</span>O you know that the human race is being weighed in the balances? Work +and pray that it may not be found wanting.</p> + +<p>We who dwell in the clear light of that world which is to you the Other +World, can see the handwriting on the wall.</p> + +<p>The world has been too dishonest. In an honest world, could this war +have been? In the world that is to come, nation will not distrust +nation, nor man distrust man. But now distrust is a necessary part of +the human equipment. You may trust—but not too far. You may love your<span class="pagenum" id="Page_104">[Pg 104]</span> +neighbor—but not too much. You may do to your brother as you would +have him do to you—but not all the time.</p> + +<p>America was built on a foundation of ideals; but there is too much of +the mud of personal seeking mixed with the good clay of your bricks.</p> + +<p>You washed away with your blood one plague-spot, that of slavery; but +there is another plague-spot you have got to wash away. Will you do it +with the free water of good will, or will you do it again with your +blood? I wait to see.</p> + +<p>Do not say that the world’s troubles are over, because America has +come into the war. The world’s troubles are not over. When the war is +over—the greater war—make clean your house, O America!</p> + +<p>There is no other civilized country where the premiums upon dishonesty +are so high.</p> + +<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_105">[Pg 105]</span></p> + +<p>Can you buy a pound of butter and be certain that you get sixteen full +ounces? Can you buy a pound of meat and be sure that the scales are +true?</p> + +<p>A new race is being born. Begin with those children, and teach them +honesty before you teach them geography—honesty with the parents, +honesty with each other, honesty with themselves. “As the twig is bent +the tree inclines.”</p> + +<p>When I was a little boy I was taught that George Washington could not +tell a lie. I had an ideal of George Washington. I wanted to emulate +him. And so when I was a man I sought truth. I looked for it on the +surface of the ground, and also in deep wells. Once I spent years +in the wilderness trying to find truth in myself. I remained in the +wilderness until I found it. Had I not found it, I should have left my +bones there.</p> + +<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_106">[Pg 106]</span></p> + +<p>You need a new set of copy-book maxims. If the boy who writes “Honesty +is the best policy” at school in the morning, sees in the afternoon his +father trying to trade a balky horse for a good roadster, he wonders +if his teacher is fooling him. The disillusionment of children is +tragic with menace for the coming State. I would rather see reproach +in the eyes of an Adept Teacher than in the eyes of a child. If I fail +my Teacher I do not hurt him seriously, if I fail my child I hurt him +irreparably.</p> + +<p>You must face the fact that the life of America is going to be +reorganized.</p> + +<p>You have wondered why I have not written of late. I have been busy, +studying America. I have seen much that I can tell you, and much that +I cannot tell you—yet. For I want you to be quiet. You<span class="pagenum" id="Page_107">[Pg 107]</span> could not be +quiet if you knew as much as I know.</p> + +<p>It has been said that necessity knows no law. Forget it not, you +war-profiteers who would corner the world’s necessities. Remember that +a cornered animal is dangerous, and a cornered necessity has hoofs and +horns.</p> + +<p>There is a disease that has no name among the doctors—the disease of +colossal possessions. Its symptoms are a voracious appetite for more +possessions, and a phobia lest possessions should be lost. It is worse +than neuralgia and indigestion combined to disturb the rest of the +victim.</p> + +<p>I long to see a hundred million and more people living in peace and +plenty in America.</p> + +<p>Fanatics prattle about the confiscation of great fortunes. I do not +care so much what you do with your fortunes. But I<span class="pagenum" id="Page_108">[Pg 108]</span> care much what you +do with your land and your food, and I care more what you do with your +men and women and little children.</p> + +<p>Do not get into a panic, I pray you. A panic is worse than a quicksand +to get into. Keep calm. The country is in no danger, if it does not +lose its head.</p> + + +<hr class="chap x-ebookmaker-drop"> + +<div class="chapter"> +<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_109">[Pg 109]</span></p> + +<h2 class="nobreak" id="LETTER_XII">LETTER XII<br> +LEVEL HEADS</h2> +</div> + + +<p class="right"> +<i>May 15, 1917.</i></p> + +<p class="nind"> +<span class="dropcap">D</span>O not get excited, you Americans. If you keep your heads, you will +come through this all right. If you lose your heads, you may lose much +besides—you may lose more than you can win back in a hundred years.</p> + +<p>I am not excited. I have not lost my head. (Yes, I still have a head, +and hands and feet. If I should try to live out here without hands +and feet, the adjustment to that unaccustomed condition would have +a reactionary effect upon my head. I am not experimenting in the +elimination of my members.)</p> + +<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_110">[Pg 110]</span></p> + +<p>You see a country now, Russia, that is making the experiment of living +without its head. No nation can continue as a nation without a head, +and a level one. Even the most extremely republican, democratic, +socialistic, or any other kind of a nation must have a head. A +completely anarchistic aggregation of people could not be called a +nation. Its land would be only a geographical section populated with +units, and such units unrelated to other units might as well be ciphers.</p> + +<p>Do not be impatient because I write seldom at present. I am rather +busy. I shall always come when I have something that must be said.</p> + +<p>A change is coming in America. Quite a change has already come about, +has it not?<a id="FNanchor_2" href="#Footnote_2" class="fnanchor">[2]</a></p> + +<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_111">[Pg 111]</span></p> + +<p>This country is great, this country is strong, this country is +adaptable. It can adjust itself to change. The people of this country +have not been slaves for a long time. The people of Russia have been so +many kinds of slaves that their reaction to freedom is unexpected by a +free world. Wait! Do not lose your heads about this matter.</p> + +<p class="space-below2"> +I do not object to there being a few persons who know that I am writing +with you again. They cannot affect me, save to encourage me with their +interest.</p> + + +<div class="footnotes"><h3>FOOTNOTES:</h3> + +<div class="footnote"> + +<p class="nind"><a id="Footnote_2" href="#FNanchor_2" class="label">[2]</a> +It was about this time, if I remember rightly, that many +of our wealthy men began working for the government at one dollar a +year.</p> + +</div> +</div> + + +<hr class="chap x-ebookmaker-drop"> + +<div class="chapter"> +<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_112">[Pg 112]</span></p> +<h2 class="nobreak" id="LETTER_XIII">LETTER XIII<br> +TREES AND BRICK WALLS</h2> +</div> + + +<p class="right"> +<i>May 16, 1917.</i></p> + +<p class="nind"> +<span class="dropcap">Y</span>OU fear lest the dismal prophecies of world-disaster, of cataclysm, +of the destruction of half the human race which you hear from many +sources, may tend to discourage the world.</p> + +<p>Remember that hope springs eternal in the human breast. And if the +minds of men are familiar with the idea of cataclysm, they will more +readily adjust themselves to lesser changes.</p> + +<p>Read the Old Testament. The most dismal prophecies were not verified, +but changes came.</p> + +<p>Some of the “independent ministers” of<span class="pagenum" id="Page_113">[Pg 113]</span> America are more violent than +Jeremiah. But they help indirectly—in accustoming the minds of men to +the idea of change.</p> + +<p>If panics come—and they may—refuse to be panic-stricken.</p> + +<p>If violence comes—and it may—refuse to be violent.</p> + +<p>If discouragements come—and they will—refuse to be discouraged.</p> + +<p>When your brains become over-heated, look steadily at the trees. They +will quiet you. If there are no trees in your neighborhood—why, look +at a brick wall in moments of excitement. A brick wall is a soothing +spectacle. It stands steady, unless moved from without.</p> + + +<hr class="chap x-ebookmaker-drop"> + +<div class="chapter"> +<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_114">[Pg 114]</span></p> + +<h2 class="nobreak" id="LETTER_XIV">LETTER XIV<br> +INVISIBLE ARMIES</h2> +</div> + + +<p class="right"> +<i>May 23, 1917.</i></p> + +<p class="nind"> +<span class="dropcap">M</span>ANY of the soldiers out here who have become fully awake and +self-conscious are striving to bring about those ends for which they +gave their lives on earth. There are thus soldiers working on both +sides of the war and on this side of the veil. Immediately after the +change many of them fight each other; but they soon learn that they can +do more effective work by giving attention to their comrades in the +flesh. They can soothe and inspire and instruct.</p> + +<p>We are forming an army out here. There is no lack of recruits. America<span class="pagenum" id="Page_115">[Pg 115]</span> +must be saved, and few of you know how much America has to be saved +from. But we know—we who have watched the world for the last two years +and three-quarters.</p> + +<p>It is not so terrible to die. It is really far more terrible to be born.</p> + +<p>The army that we are recruiting here is made up of men of all ages—all +ages in this life, I mean. Yes, there are women also in our army. There +are some veterans of the Civil War and veterans of the War with Spain. +Over the regiments and divisions of this army there are commanders, +as over the armies of earth. Otherwise the work would lack unity of +purpose. Ours is mostly a volunteer army, though conscription is not +unknown among us.</p> + +<p>You wonder what I mean? Do you not suppose that we can call a soul from +a useless<span class="pagenum" id="Page_116">[Pg 116]</span> occupation and give him useful labor? We can and do, daily.</p> + +<p>We have even recruited largely from the old and native Americans, the +red skinned hunters and warriors who remain in such large numbers in +the neighborhood of the earth. There is work which they only can do. +There are many kinds of work and a great variety of workers.</p> + +<p>I come and go, from coast to coast. I know what is doing on the shores +of the Pacific, in the Atlantic States, on the Gulf of Mexico, and +the Middle and Rocky Mountain States are familiar ground to me. I am +renewing my youth in this period of activity. I am working for my +country. I am in training, too.</p> + +<p>Why do you smile? There is a training of the mind and the will that is +more effective than any training of the physical body—quicker and more +effective. Then<span class="pagenum" id="Page_117">[Pg 117]</span> too the astral body can be trained to a high degree of +efficiency and elasticity. Surely I need not tell you this.</p> + +<p>And I am training others. We old fellows can be very useful in a time +like this. I am glad now that I came out <i>when</i> I did, that I went +through my novitiate while the world was still at peace and there was +leisure for many things which now I should not have time for. I had a +delightful holiday. I hunted through the wilds of the invisible, and +fished in the waters of space; but now I am back at my work again.</p> + + +<hr class="chap x-ebookmaker-drop"> + +<div class="chapter"> +<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_118">[Pg 118]</span></p> + +<h2 class="nobreak" id="LETTER_XV">LETTER XV<br> +THE WEAKEST LINK</h2> +</div> + + +<p class="right"> +<i>June 2, 1917.</i></p> + +<p class="nind"> +<span class="dropcap">T</span>HERE are in the archives of the Masters of Wisdom certain data +relative to the past and future of this country which would make +interesting reading could they be published in the newspapers at this +time of national crisis.</p> + +<p>America is aware of her mission of democracy; but she is not aware +of another mission equally potent—that of making the world safe for +spiritual culture. I do not mean religion, as the word is ordinarily +used; but I mean the culture of the spirit of love—such ideas of love +as the world has inadequately grasped from the teachings<span class="pagenum" id="Page_119">[Pg 119]</span> of Jesus +of Nazareth, grasped and let fall again because those ideas were too +warm to be comfortably held by hands cooled in the material labors of +selfishness.</p> + +<p>America has laid up for herself in the regions beyond the physical a +debt—an obligation that is not by any means a treasure in heaven, but +which, when the debt is paid, may be a real spiritual treasure. I refer +to the armies of souls who once occupied this land as free owners, and +who were expelled and disinherited by the expanding civilization which +grew up in the place of wigwam and hunting-ground.</p> + +<p>Those souls, many of them, desire to return. Many have already +returned, and unless some way is open for them to live again the free +life to which they were accustomed in the past, they will tend to +become a destructive force. They cannot be eliminated so easily now, +when they wear<span class="pagenum" id="Page_120">[Pg 120]</span> white bodies and claim citizenship with you. They are +scattered from shore to shore of this wide land. You can tell them +by their eagle eyes and their high cheek bones, by their free gait +and their love of freedom. They are hard to restrain in factory and +counting-house. They are clerks with a difference and laborers with a +dream. Many of them have found entrance into the sun-lighted world as +the children of European immigrants, for they find it easier to enter +the blood of certain other races than the blood of the Anglo-Saxon, for +all the Anglo-Saxon love of freedom.</p> + +<p>A time may come when these now foreign-blooded primitive Americans will +instinctively rebel against the restraining influences that have held +them, when they will seek to live over again the old life of nature, +even though they have to take it<span class="pagenum" id="Page_121">[Pg 121]</span> as the kingdom of heaven is said to +have been taken.</p> + +<p>There is coming a time when love will be needed in this land as it has +never been needed before, when “live and let live” must become a law as +well as a phrase. Those who long for freedom with Nature can be given +that freedom. Conditions may be hard in the great cities.</p> + +<p>I am not trying to instill fear into the American heart. On the +contrary, I am trying to insure you against fear.</p> + +<p>Not long could the wheels of civilization stop turning. But they could +stop—for a wink of the Cosmic Eye.</p> + +<p>America is going to be saved, and saved in the hour of her greatest +danger. What will her greatest danger be? You must think that out for +yourself.</p> + +<p>Learn to see through the eye of the Planetary Spirit. Your view is too +narrow.<span class="pagenum" id="Page_122">[Pg 122]</span> Where your library stands on shelves is for you the centre +of things; but the centre of things is in the heart, and hearts are +everywhere. If you think about the race and not about yourself, your +heart will be magnified; you will see with the eyes of the heart, and +he who sees with the eyes of the heart is wiser than historians or +intellectual prophets.</p> + +<p>The world must be made safe for love. All men must be provided for in +the scheme of the future, all men and women and little children. It +is not safe to disregard any, for a chain is as strong as its weakest +link, and every link must be made strong.</p> + + +<hr class="chap x-ebookmaker-drop"> + +<div class="chapter"> +<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_123">[Pg 123]</span></p> + +<h2 class="nobreak" id="LETTER_XVI">LETTER XVI<br> +A COUNCIL IN THE FOREST</h2> +</div> + + +<p class="nind"> +<span class="dropcap">O</span>NE night, to repose my soul from the labors I had undertaken, I +retired to a pine forest upon the earth, in one of the New England +States. Thinking to be alone, I had sought the place; but no sooner +had I drifted into meditation than a strange sound fell upon my ears. +It was not like the sounds of earth, it was more subtle yet more +penetrating; and I knew that I was listening to a song (if you may call +it a song) by some of my fellow sojourners in the region beyond the +sunlight.</p> + +<p>Suddenly with a rush they leaped past me into the clearing, and forming +in a<span class="pagenum" id="Page_124">[Pg 124]</span> circle, they waited. Then I saw a light that was not of earthly +origin, the light of a campfire, and I knew that I had been surprised +by a band of Indians who were preparing to hold some rite of their old +religion.</p> + +<p>Though I had not been invited to their ceremony, neither had I invited +them to intrude upon my contemplation, so I remained and watched them.</p> + +<p>(Yes, there is less secrecy out here, for the reason that there is +greater understanding and greater tolerance.)</p> + +<p>Soon I was looking on at a strange dance. All in a circle they swung +round and round the blazing fire, singing and leaping. I did not know +the meaning of the words they sang; but I could read their minds by the +thought-images they formed, and I knew that they were celebrating the +date—reached by what lunar<span class="pagenum" id="Page_125">[Pg 125]</span> reckoning I knew not—of some great Indian +massacre in which they had taken part a hundred or two hundred years +ago.</p> + +<p>And the impulse of their dance, the motive power of it, was hatred of +the white man who had scattered them and driven them away from their +old hunting grounds.</p> + +<p>Shocked, yet fascinated by this inner glimpse at the souls of the +American aborigines, I watched them.</p> + +<p>Though I am not skilled in magic rituals, I soon perceived that there +was form and method in this dance, method and form and a hostile +purpose.</p> + +<p>They were, by exciting themselves and by fixity of thought, trying to +excite a scattered company of men in these United States—men of a low +grade of intellect but of psychic temperament—to deeds of violence and +destruction.</p> + +<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_126">[Pg 126]</span></p> + +<p>“So that is the way they do it!” I thought.</p> + +<p>Then I drew a veil around my thoughts, that they might not be perceived +by the beings before me. Yes, I can do that, and so can many men upon +the earth.</p> + +<p>I could smell the keen fresh odors of the pine grove, and I could feel +the rising wind as it swept across the clearing; for the wind seemed to +respond to their call and to offer its forces to them. You must know +that the elements are impersonal, though semi-personalities inhabit +them, and that the elements <i>and</i> these semi-personalities can be +used and guided, for purposes good or evil, by any being who has gained +that peculiar power in one or many lives.</p> + +<p>And looking off in the distance, I could see that the wind as it swept +along carried the thoughts and passions of these long<span class="pagenum" id="Page_127">[Pg 127]</span> dead men, these +souls that by reason of their downward tendencies had not broken away +from the attraction of matter, the astral gravitation that makes so +many souls earth-bound.</p> + +<p>Still looking off and projecting my consciousness in a way I have +learned to do, I saw the influence of this magic ritual of revenge +and menace as it touched the minds of men far scattered. I saw +their thoughts take on suddenly the tinge of hatred, hatred for the +civilization in which they had failed to realize their personal desires.</p> + +<p>And I knew that on that night and on the morrow, and at intervals for +many days, deeds of violence would be committed, that property would be +destroyed, and men of order threatened.</p> + +<p>My heart was sad, for I had not understood before how real was the +danger to<span class="pagenum" id="Page_128">[Pg 128]</span> my country in these times of crisis from the karma the old +settlers had made. Of course they believed they were doing right in +ridding themselves and their adopted land from the simple but complex +natives, whose civilization was older than the civilization of Europe, +and who had loved this land as only those can love a land who have +known the freedom of its spaces.</p> + +<p>When the magic dance was over, and one by one and two by two the +communicants slipped away among the shadows, I strode forward into +the circle to have speech with any who should willingly respond to my +desire for acquaintanceship.</p> + +<p>Suddenly I found myself face to face with a majestic chieftain, wearing +one of those long feather bonnets whose every feather marks some deed +of daring or achievement. (What a splendid custom was that! What an +incentive to action!<span class="pagenum" id="Page_129">[Pg 129]</span> Truly among the red men, deeds won a feather in +the cap.)</p> + +<p>His face was like that of a hawk, and his eyes were bright with an +inner fire, that intensity of feeling and thought commingled which +marks the leader and master of men and him alone.</p> + +<p>And I said to him in the forms of thought, for I knew no word of his +old language:</p> + +<p>“I have been an unintentional witness to your ceremony this evening. +Will you enlighten me further as to its purpose? for I see that it was +directed towards the land of breathing men.”</p> + +<p>With a sweep of his authoritative arm he dismissed the few of his +companions who had not already moved away among the trees, and we two +were alone together.</p> + +<p>“I come as a friend,” I said, seeing that he hesitated.</p> + +<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_130">[Pg 130]</span></p> + +<p>And the word was true; for I saw that whatever harm he mistakenly +sought to accomplish, in his soul was the consciousness of justice, +that fundamental balance between right and wrong, that proposition +of law, which when native in the mind gives it dignity and attracts +respect. This was no dabbler in aboriginal and nasty sorcery, but a +kind of priest of retribution, a tribal demi-god who might perhaps some +day be made constructive and not destructive, an instrument of the +great Genius of America of which I have spoken in a former letter, the +Weaver of Destiny who has our land in charge.</p> + +<p>We measured each other with the eyes, and I cast aside the veil that I +had before drawn around my thoughts, that he might see me mind to mind +and realize that I respected and to a degree understood him.</p> + +<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_131">[Pg 131]</span></p> + +<p>“You have seen what you have seen,” he observed.</p> + +<p>“And you do not resent my presence?”</p> + +<p>“No.”</p> + +<p>The fresh odor of the pine grove was keen in my senses, and my +new-found companion threw back his head with a splendid motion as if to +drink it in.</p> + +<p>“Freedom is good,” he said, “and the land was ours.”</p> + +<p>So I perceived that by excusing himself and his associates he had +perceived that I accused them. Then I knew that I could really commune +with him mind to mind, and I was glad; for I ever seek to extend the +range of my knowledge and to form acquaintance with those of sturdy +will.</p> + +<p>“But the land is free to all the world,” I said, “to you and to me, and +to those of both our races.”</p> + +<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_132">[Pg 132]</span></p> + +<p>“We do not see it so,” was his reply.</p> + +<p>“But,” I insisted, “are we not now, you and I, enjoying it in freedom?”</p> + +<p>It is difficult to translate in words the rapid give and take of our +thoughts, the pictures that flashed back and forth between us, as I +strove with kindliness and will to make him understand that the welfare +of his race did not call for the destruction of mine.</p> + +<p>I told him—and the idea was so new to him that, lacking words, I had +to draw my story on the canvas of thought in the minutest detail—how +the soul that leaves the earth for a time returns to it in another +form. And I explained how hundreds upon hundreds of his people, and the +most advanced among them, had already come back in material form to +that America they had loved before, that they wore white bodies, and +could only be distinguished<span class="pagenum" id="Page_133">[Pg 133]</span> from other white men by the keenness of +their eyes, their gait, and certain peculiarities of speech and manner.</p> + +<p>He followed my story with astonished, almost painful, intensity; for he +knew, with that inner knowledge which on this side of life is almost +impossible to deceive, that I spoke honestly and believed that which I +told him.</p> + +<p>“And do you not deceive yourself?” was his inevitable question.</p> + +<p>Then I told him of those recent and former lives of my own which I most +vividly remember, and cited proofs that I did not deceive myself.</p> + +<p>“But what a life is that of the white man for one of my people?” he +demanded.</p> + +<p>Then he flashed me picture after picture of the simple white man’s +life in America, the schoolhouse with the choking-hot stove and the +bad air, the house<span class="pagenum" id="Page_134">[Pg 134]</span> and home with closed doors and windows, the +“meeting-house” where a droning or a noisy preacher prated of things he +did not understand, to others who believed or did not believe that they +believed him. He held up before me as for ridicule the clothing of the +white man in the lower walks of life, the confining and uncomfortable +shoes, the binding trousers, the ugly hat that makes bald the head, and +the collar. The one he pictured was a paper collar, soiled and wilted +at the edges.</p> + +<p>Then he showed me—as if to prove the breadth of his observations—an +office in a city, with the clerks seated upon stools and bent with +aching backs over ledgers that contained figures, figures, long lines +of figures that were the symbols of the white man’s wampum, which +seemed so trivial when made the principal occupation<span class="pagenum" id="Page_135">[Pg 135]</span> of a soul that +had rejoiced in the red man’s forest.</p> + +<p>“And is it for this that they come back to their native land?” he asked.</p> + +<p>“But the soul must gain all experience,” I said.</p> + +<p>The idea seemed new to him, and he pondered it with knitted brows.</p> + +<p>“Why should the soul gain all experience?” he asked.</p> + +<p>“That it may return to its God rich in knowledge,” I replied.</p> + +<p>“Its God.” At that thought the strange eyes of him lighted, though his +face remained immobile.</p> + +<p>“Yes,” I said, “for your God and my God are both God.”</p> + +<p>“There are many gods,” he replied. “There is the Great Spirit, and +there are the others.”</p> + +<p>“In the centre of each of them,” I assured<span class="pagenum" id="Page_136">[Pg 136]</span> him, “there is a spot, a +core of the heart that is the same in all, that exists everywhere, and +in every heart is one, that knows no division; and that centre is also +in your heart and mine and in that of our respective Gods.”</p> + +<p>“Did you learn that in one of those hot schoolhouses?” he asked.</p> + +<p>“No. I did not learn it even when I was an old man upon the earth, +but after I came out here. On earth I rather prided myself on my +separateness.”</p> + +<p>“Then one can learn new religions out here?” he asked, in surprise.</p> + +<p>“If one finds a teacher,” I replied.</p> + +<p>“But what need is there of <i>new</i> religions?”</p> + +<p>“There is,” I said, “in the core of every religion also that central +spot where all are one. And there is in all races,” I pursued, for I +saw that he watched with half-belief,<span class="pagenum" id="Page_137">[Pg 137]</span> “there is in all races a core +of unity. The red man is the brother and not the permanent enemy of +the white man. So why should you injure the descendants of those who +followed what they believed to be right in extending their holdings in +this land long ago?”</p> + +<p>“But I was not seeking to injure them for injury’s sake.”</p> + +<p>“Then I misunderstood the purpose of your magic song.”</p> + +<p>“Oh!” he exclaimed. “You caught the feeling of my children, who cannot +see beyond feeling. My purpose is only to destroy the present to make +way for the old life.”</p> + +<p>“But the present is always a stage,” I said, “on the highroad +that leads to the future. And my people reincarnated, and yours +reincarnated—or so many of them as are ready to go on—shall go on<span class="pagenum" id="Page_138">[Pg 138]</span> +together and in this land. They will form, with those who join them +from beyond the seas, a new race. And thanks to the labors of a few +among the white men who have studied and appreciated the traditions +and civilization of the red man and sought to save them from utter +obliteration, the old forest lore will become a part of the inheritance +of that new race which is to grow out of the union of yours and mine +and the others. And for a part of every year, when the life of the new +race is adjusted, the boys and girls and men and women will go out to +the wilds and enjoy the freedom of the tent and the society round the +campfire, and we shall be brothers—real blood-brothers—at last, and +all the old wounds shall be healed. Can you not recognize me as your +brother?”</p> + +<p>He nodded his head.</p> + +<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_139">[Pg 139]</span></p> + +<p>“And will you not spread among your people the glad tidings of the new +race, in all of whose possessions they will share?”</p> + +<p>We stood long looking in each other’s eyes, and I told him more than I +could record here if I held the use of your pencil for many hours. In +the end he understood me.</p> + +<p>It is my belief that he will spread the story among his people, and +that one danger will be lessened thereby, to some degree, for the +children of the new race.</p> + + +<hr class="chap x-ebookmaker-drop"> + +<div class="chapter"> +<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_140">[Pg 140]</span></p> + +<h2 class="nobreak" id="LETTER_XVII">LETTER XVII<br> +THE IDEAL OF SUCCESS</h2> +</div> + + +<p class="right"> +<i>June 23, 1917.</i></p> + +<p class="nind"> +<span class="dropcap">P</span>UT fear out of your hearts. The future will give you no greater +lessons than you can master. It is not well to know the future in +complete detail. Had the world known during the last ten years all it +would be obliged to suffer in this war, would it have made the progress +it has made in art, science and commerce? No. Every thought would have +been haunted.</p> + +<p>You may say that the weaker races (and the stronger ones) would have +made better preparation. But a part of this lesson has been not to +delay inevitable preparation,<span class="pagenum" id="Page_141">[Pg 141]</span> and to know in future that a nation +which idealizes war and is mostly army, has not cultivated that ideal +and that army solely for its own amusement.</p> + +<p>If you want to understand national life and individual life, you must +look for their dominating ideals. An ideal is a tendency.</p> + +<p>What is the dominating ideal of America? Summed in a word, it is +success, is it not? Now America is in a great war, and you may be sure +that she will leave nothing undone that can make for success in that +war, as she has left nothing undone that could make for success in +business.</p> + +<p>Take your own case. What are your dominating ideals and tendencies? You +would say, off-hand, work and study and intellectual companionship, +would you not? Very well. As to work, do not fear a future in which +good work is pretty<span class="pagenum" id="Page_142">[Pg 142]</span> sure of at least a living wage. Study? There will +always be books to feed your hunger for reading. Companionship? There +are too many lonely souls in the world for you ever to be lonely.</p> + +<p>What else? You lift your pencil and think.... That is about all, is it +not?</p> + +<p>Now let us return to America. America is not—has not been—a warlike +nation, except when threatened by injustice, to herself or others. Will +she lose this war? I think not.</p> + +<p>But there will be complexities regarding the end of this war.</p> + +<p>I want to refer to something I said in a recent letter, that we were +organizing on this side of the airy frontier for work for the future of +America.</p> + +<p>I have spoken of the Genius of this land, a composite entity you may +call it, if your imagination is not equal to the task of<span class="pagenum" id="Page_143">[Pg 143]</span> seeing that +you—all of you—are cells in the body of the Genius of America.</p> + +<p>Now the Genius of this land has glorious purposes, and she uses +you—all of you—for her purposes, as you use the cells of your body, +as you are using at this moment the aggregation of cells that form the +hand with which you hold your pencil.</p> + +<p>In registering yourselves at the call of your country, you are +affirming your acceptance of the office of cells in the great body of +her. Some of you she must sacrifice in the war for the welfare of the +whole, as every day cells die and are born in the body of man, the +microcosm.</p> + +<p>Extend the idea to the whole human race, and the figure will be still +more apt. The genius of the race is suffering now. The process will +ultimate in a more perfect health.</p> + +<p>You perhaps protest that many of those<span class="pagenum" id="Page_144">[Pg 144]</span> who are dying are the flower +of the race, the young, the fitted to survive. But do you not remember +that their souls survive? The essential part of them is not lost, but +set free for a greater work. Have you considered that earth-life may be +the dream, and the life after death the waking? Sages have considered +it before you, and accepted the possibility.</p> + +<p>Out here we are hopeful, and very busy. It is because I am so busy that +I come to you only occasionally. Do not hurry me, for I do not hurry +you.</p> + +<p>We have problems to solve out here. As I have said, one of our problems +is the great number of Indian souls, red men souls, who went out of +life with resentment and revenge in their hearts for the elimination of +their race by the white man in America.</p> + +<p>Somehow we must placate them, and<span class="pagenum" id="Page_145">[Pg 145]</span> enlist them on your side. Otherwise +they may be a dangerous element for the future. Some of them would like +to see your civilization destroyed, as theirs was destroyed, and a few +of them are strong enough to do real harm.</p> + +<p>The best way to make an enemy harmless is to understand his peculiar +qualities, to learn something from the frankness of his enmity, to turn +away evil by letting it go off at a tangent. But the Indian souls are +not famous for their frankness. Even with me they sometimes conceal +their resentment—deep, fundamental—at the “theft,” as they feel it, +of the land where they once roamed in freedom.</p> + +<p>I advise America to cultivate the free life of the open. I have advised +you in a former book that the old woodcraft should be resuscitated and +taught to the children. There may come a time when the rudiments<span class="pagenum" id="Page_146">[Pg 146]</span> of +this knowledge will be useful to many of you.</p> + +<p>Great changes are coming in the world, a period of adjustment to new +conditions. There is a restless element in all adjustment, and national +restlessness is like that of puberty; it needs to be minimized by +healthful outdoor play, or by work which masquerades as play.</p> + +<p>The future will take from the present those elements that are most +important for survival.</p> + +<p>Do not fear that we shall return to the Dark Ages. Oh, no. We are going +into a Light Age. It is only twilight now.</p> + + +<hr class="chap x-ebookmaker-drop"> + +<div class="chapter"> +<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_147">[Pg 147]</span></p> + +<h2 class="nobreak" id="LETTER_XVIII">LETTER XVIII<br> +ORDER AND PROGRESS</h2> +</div> + + +<p class="right"> +<i>July 18, 1917.</i></p> + +<p class="nind"> +<span class="dropcap">O</span>UR purpose is to make the changes that must come, come gradually. We +want to avoid sudden changes.</p> + +<p>You in the world have no faint idea of the influence and power we can +wield on our side. We can speak to the minds of men without their +knowing whence the ideas come. They think, when a sudden idea comes +into their minds, that they have evolved it; but <i>sudden</i> ideas +generally come from outside. (I put one in your mind this morning, then +ran away before you could recognize me. Why did I run<span class="pagenum" id="Page_148">[Pg 148]</span> away? Because I +wanted you to use your own judgment.)</p> + +<p>Just at present we are trying to encourage America as to her +future—<i>her orderly and peaceful future</i>, after peace is declared +in Europe.</p> + +<p>You may as well know that there are many out here who are anxious about +the future of the world. All men do not cease to worry when they have +left their bodies. There are many here who think the world is going to +smash. They always had that fear in life whenever things seemed to go +wrong; and now they are no less inclined to accept every perplexity as +an omen of failure and confusion.</p> + +<p>All over America there are men and women—and many of them are in +pulpits and on platforms—who are croaking away about the destruction +of society following this war. Bless your troubled hearts!<span class="pagenum" id="Page_149">[Pg 149]</span> Society is +not going to be destroyed. Some elements in society will be gradually +done away with, and good riddance to them! But society has made too +great advance, in mechanical and intellectual ways, to permit its +structure to be pulled from beneath its feet.</p> + +<p>Do not worry. Watch out, but do not worry. As Abraham Lincoln once +prevented this country from being territorially divided and thus +weakened, so he and others are now working to prevent a spiritual +division that would be even more disastrous.</p> + +<p>No, we are not going to see your useful inventions and your structures +that the future has need of, cast into the rubbish heap by reckless +violence and extravagance. What is useful must be conserved. What is +useless for the future can be made over into something useful.</p> + +<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_150">[Pg 150]</span></p> + +<p>Humanity has not been in the habit of taking sudden jumps. It has put +one foot regularly before the other, and gone ahead rather steadily. +The way of man in the past has been to improve and make over, rather +than suddenly to discard its institutions, or even its garments. +Only that which is really worn out is cast away. And our financial +system, and our social system in general, will be improved and <i>not +discarded</i>. Did you think we were going back to wampum? Oh, no!</p> + +<p>There <i>is</i> a strong pull from this side, and from those who +inhabited your continent, to simplify the life in America. But America +is no longer isolate. She has now taken her place in the republic of +nations.</p> + +<p>Some of the souls who used to be American Indians would like to see +America resume wigwams and campfires, because<span class="pagenum" id="Page_151">[Pg 151]</span> those souls want to come +back, and they dread the complexity of modern American life. But there +are teachers here—and some of them red teachers—who can instruct the +souls behindhand in adaptability.</p> + +<p>I have told you that there is an influence tending to draw America +backward. But I have not told you to be panicky regarding the fact. +There are reactionaries—even in your world.</p> + +<p>The influence from this side is subtle. But the majority here who +desire to lead the world, desire to lead it forward and not back. +<i>The world will go forward.</i></p> + +<p>Yes, the souls you call the “departed” are organizing themselves. They +realize that their influence can be more effective if it has a purpose +and a program. For a time after the war began there was great confusion +out here, but things are becoming<span class="pagenum" id="Page_152">[Pg 152]</span> more orderly. Minds are becoming +more united. Many of us who have common sense and some measure of +political judgment give most of our time to lecturing here and there, +wherever we can draw a crowd together. That is one reason why you have +seen me so seldom of late. I have been busier than ever before. Knowing +that a time is coming soon when I can rest from my present labors, I am +using my strength as fast as I generate it. For those whom I convince +that America and other countries are going forward—<i>must</i> go +forward to greater activity—seek to convince others in their turn. +No lecturer on earth ever had so busy a month as I have had this last +month. I have spoken to hundreds several times every day, going from +place to place, from State to State, from city to city. I can speak in +San Francisco in the morning, in New<span class="pagenum" id="Page_153">[Pg 153]</span> York at noon, in New Orleans at +two o’clock, in Butte, Montana, in the evening. I am not limited to +railway time-tables, nor do I pay my fare.</p> + +<p>Believe me, we are going to save America, and we are going to save the +world. For the Masters are behind us, and they will not let the world +be destroyed.</p> + +<p>I should not like you to know how near it has been to destruction more +than once during the last three years. But the forces of premeditated +evil against which we fought so long have been scattered now, and +though they have not been destroyed, their effect has been greatly +lessened. What we have reason to fear now is the unwisdom of those who +believe they wish good to the world—<i>the unwisdom of fanatics and +agitators and fuss-budgets</i> of all sorts, stirring up confusion<span class="pagenum" id="Page_154">[Pg 154]</span> and +darkening counsel with their unpractical and conflicting ideas.</p> + +<p>Order, order, order! That is what the world must strive for in the +period of reaction which will follow this war. The reaction must be +reckoned with; but it will be only a brief rest of overwearied hearts, +who will again begin building.</p> + +<p>It is in that building period that I hope for America, because she will +be less tired than the other members of the great world brotherhood. +But in America at that time there will be a danger. I tell you that, +lest you be taken unawares and relax your attention.</p> + +<p>Be watchful, but not over-anxious.</p> + +<p>And trust the Masters of Life somehow to lead you through.</p> + + +<hr class="chap x-ebookmaker-drop"> + +<div class="chapter"> +<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_155">[Pg 155]</span></p> + +<h2 class="nobreak" id="LETTER_XIX">LETTER XIX<br> +THE FEDERATION OF NATIONS</h2> +</div> + + +<p class="right"> +<i>August 9, 1917.</i></p> + +<p class="nind"> +<span class="dropcap">T</span>HE time has now come for America to get out into the world and take +her place in the federation of nations. Let her unite with England in a +strong bond, and thereby she can keep the peace of the world.</p> + +<p>The isolation of America in the past has been in line with her destiny; +it was necessary for her to develop to her present state of power +without interruptions, or the influence of international complications +upon her statesmen. Free and alone, she has not had to become a part +of the great and creaking machine of international<span class="pagenum" id="Page_156">[Pg 156]</span> diplomacy and +intrigue. But now she is independent, and, politically speaking, +her character is formed. You may say that America has attained her +majority, and is entitled to vote in the councils and elections of the +world.</p> + +<p>She has much to do for both France and England, as they have both +done so much for her in the past. They have formed her culture and +influenced her spirit; now she will influence their spirit.</p> + +<p>When you read the other day of the work which our soldiers are doing in +France, helping in many little ways in the villages and on the farms, +your heart glowed with pleasure; you remembered what I said to you +before America came into the war, that our men were to go to France and +to work, work, work for the upbuilding of France.</p> + +<p>That is only the beginning. More and<span class="pagenum" id="Page_157">[Pg 157]</span> more will our men work over +there, during and after war.</p> + +<p>Soon there will come a call for a new kind of work—new for us.</p> + +<p>There is deep meaning in this bringing together of the nations for a +common cause. From that, there is only a step to the bringing together +of <i>all</i> nations for <i>one</i> cause.</p> + +<p>The force of revolt in the world must spend itself, as the force of +race hatred has spent itself—for it is already spent. The continuation +of the war will be practically without the rage of the beginning. We go +on because it is our job, and even in New York now there is no longer +the fierceness of two years ago. And in England it is lessened, and +in France it is lessened, and in Germany it is lessened. War has now +become a task like any other, to<span class="pagenum" id="Page_158">[Pg 158]</span> be gone through with. When it no +longer seems worth while, it will stop.</p> + +<p>The question of America’s part in the federation of states interests me +now.</p> + + +<hr class="chap x-ebookmaker-drop"> + +<div class="chapter"> +<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_159">[Pg 159]</span></p> + +<h2 class="nobreak" id="LETTER_XX">LETTER XX<br> +THE NEW IDEAL</h2> +</div> + + +<p class="right"> +<i>August 19, 1917.</i></p> + +<p class="nind"> +<span class="dropcap">S</span>INCE Germany evolved her idea of flamboyant nationalism and tried +to foist it upon the world in imperial fashion, the world has grown +skeptical of the national fetish. It will believe in the good +intentions of no nation or race that flaunts its perfections in the +face of friend or enemy.</p> + +<p>America, as she grows more and more sure of her high destiny, must also +grow more modest. She must realize herself as one of the sister states +in the great commonwealth of nations, and the eagle will take lessons +in voice culture. As a quiet<span class="pagenum" id="Page_160">[Pg 160]</span> voice can make itself heard in a medley +of noises where a screaming voice would be inaudible, so must America’s +voice become deep and quiet.</p> + +<p>She is paying for her place in the councils of the world. Let her voice +be heard by reason of its dignified and restrained accents.</p> + +<p>A great change is taking place in Europe, in its conception of the +American character. Hitherto France has known the American tourist, +and the uprooted American who lived there in preference to his own +country. Now France is learning something about the American man in his +workaday, playaday, fighting and loving, living and dying sublimity. +She has rubbed her eyes as she watched him, wondering if she were +awake. She has recognized a new type. She does not understand it yet, +but she wants to understand<span class="pagenum" id="Page_161">[Pg 161]</span> it. There is a new and disturbing warmth +now at the heart of France for this new brother from across the seas. +She sees (for she is subtle) the crudity of him as measured by her more +artificial standards. But she sees also the grandeur and chivalry of +him, as compared with her old idea of the foreigner.</p> + +<p>Ah, America and Americans! You are on trial now in the courts of the +world’s judgment as you have never been before. My heart is aglow as +I see our boys go out into the larger world, carrying with them the +clear outdoor spirit of the American plains and woodlands. When I see +the eyes of the sublime and pain-chastened French grow deep and warm as +they rest upon our boys, I am so proud of them! I forget that I also +am uprooted, having left the land of my birth for the regions beyond +death.</p> + +<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_162">[Pg 162]</span></p> + +<p>In the councils at the ending of the war and after the war, may the +modesty of greatness restrain America from any suggestion to France or +England that she saved them from destruction. I clasp my hands—to you +they would be shadowy hands—together with excess of emotion, as I pray +for the guidance of America in the councils that are to come.</p> + +<p>Modesty—let that be the watchword.</p> + +<p>The soul of France is aflame with gratitude, the soul of France is +aflame with love. The hearts of the French people in the night grow +warm and their eyes grow wet as they whisper to themselves, “Les +Américains! Les Américains!”</p> + +<p>Oh, be mindful of the love you have won!</p> + +<p>I would die all over again a thousand times rather than see my +Americans disappoint<span class="pagenum" id="Page_163">[Pg 163]</span> their French brethren in this crisis of the +world’s life.</p> + +<p>You wonder why I say nothing of England? Ah! England knows you already. +England has known you long. You cannot surprise England. She knows you +as the mother knows her son or daughter; but to the French you are a +mystery, a mystery that has come to help, an angel in a khaki shirt and +a slouch hat and a strange voice.</p> + +<p>Don’t you understand?</p> + +<p>She prays for you. She would pray to you if she were not so shy in her +love. There is a new strange wonder in her eyes, and a sweet thrill all +over her.</p> + +<p>Oh, exalt the brotherhood of nations—that never before realized ideal!</p> + +<p>You cannot take away from a boy who has grown up in a free world the +deep-rooted idea that America is and ever must<span class="pagenum" id="Page_164">[Pg 164]</span> be free. In years gone +by the sons of this soil have died for freedom, freedom for themselves, +freedom for the black man. Now they fight and die for the freedom of +the world.</p> + +<p>Do you know what it means to be free? Only the self-restrained man is +free, for lawlessness is not freedom. Lawlessness is always in leash to +passions tyrannical.</p> + +<p>In the new America that I see just over the edge of the horizon +(for my eye reaches farther than yours), there will be room for the +fullest development of the individual idea, while the idea of social +responsibility will make it stable. Hitherto individuality has run +rampant. Witness the hoarding of food by a few, while many go without. +Watch the clash and struggle of each interest to take some advantage +for itself out of this tragic opportunity.</p> + +<p>Before the war is ended the hearts<span class="pagenum" id="Page_165">[Pg 165]</span> of men must work in harness with +their minds. The old generation is dying off, the generation whose +initiative girdled the continent with railroads, spurred by the hope +of personal gain. The new men who will follow the old “captains of +industry” will glimpse a new ideal.</p> + +<p>I am told by one who knows more than I that the men who have made +industrial America, by their foresight and initiative, were guided and +inspired by Beings who used them and their ambitions for world purposes +beyond their comprehension.</p> + + +<hr class="chap x-ebookmaker-drop"> + +<div class="chapter"> +<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_166">[Pg 166]</span></p> + +<h2 class="nobreak" id="LETTER_XXI">LETTER XXI<br> +A RAMBLING TALK</h2> +</div> + + +<p class="right"> +<i>November 15, 1917.</i></p> + +<p class="nind"> +<span class="dropcap">I</span> AM not in a literary mood to-night, so I may talk in a rambling way.</p> + +<p>I wonder if you know the seriousness of the enterprise which America +has undertaken. You think you do. But before the matter is all threshed +out at the end you may have surprises in store.</p> + +<p>Do not worry about your things in London. London is large, and a good +many bombs can fall without destroying any great portion of it.</p> + +<p>Yes, I say emphatically again what I said some two years and a half +ago, that there will be internal troubles in Germany—and<span class="pagenum" id="Page_167">[Pg 167]</span> in other +places, too. The world is going to be made over. Do not be afraid. The +making over of the world will not hurt you.</p> + +<p>Humanity is so afraid of change! The race has gone through many +changes—some of them in prehistoric times—more dramatic than the +present change. Humanity has a long history, and little of it is +recorded in books that you can read.</p> + +<p>Yes, the world will be united, and the world will be cut up. That +sounds like a paradox, perhaps.</p> + +<p>As I am resting to-night, I may take the liberty of being disconnected. +You ought always to live in a quiet place like this, a little remote +from the centre of things. You do not belong in the bustle and crowd +downtown, either in New York or any other large city. All those who +have developed their inner senses should<span class="pagenum" id="Page_168">[Pg 168]</span> live a little apart. That +does not mean that they should all become hermits; but they should live +in the outskirts. When you feel a desire for the crowd you can go down +into it.</p> + +<p>Tell ————— not to worry because this book is going slowly. You are +not working against time. The world will go on, and you will go with +it. Make no mistake about that. The world is going very fast. All these +new “psychic” books are an evidence that the world is going fast. A few +years ago no publisher would have issued them.</p> + +<p>I do not wonder that your head swims a little.</p> + +<p>You have been impressed by “losing” so many personal friends since +the war began, friends whose deaths seemed unconnected with the war. +But they are of those who could not adjust to the new<span class="pagenum" id="Page_169">[Pg 169]</span> world that is +coming. Their Silent Watchers are taking them out. You each have a +Silent Watcher, a something, a part of you that is above and beyond +you, yet which is the most real of all the parts of you.</p> + +<p>The Watchers of the universe are watching more intently than usual. +Your own is watching you as well as the world. It will give you notice +when any important action is necessary.</p> + +<p>It seems as if the world had adjusted itself to the idea that the dead +<i>may</i> speak with the living. But that is only the beginning of +knowledge.</p> + +<p>When the worst of the war is over, and men begin to adapt themselves +to peace, they will try to know themselves. And they will discover +that their bodies and souls are only parts of them, that they exist on +as many planes of being as there<span class="pagenum" id="Page_170">[Pg 170]</span> are planes of matter and of subtler +substance, and that each of these selves is as real as the personality +they see in the mirror. They will learn to form links between them, to +build bridges of communication. Finally they will become consciously +complete beings.</p> + +<p>Joy is coming back to the world some day, such joy as the world has +never known. You will one day be glad to be alive again, and I mean all +of you.</p> + +<p>Do not fret because you have to remain in America. At the moment +America is a good place in which to be. The world is opening its +eyes at the efficiency of America. She is setting an example that +her friends will be ashamed not to follow. Some day she will set the +highest example of all.</p> + + +<hr class="chap x-ebookmaker-drop"> + +<div class="chapter"> +<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_171">[Pg 171]</span></p> + +<h2 class="nobreak" id="LETTER_XXII">LETTER XXII<br> +THE LEVER OF WORLD UNITY</h2> +</div> + + +<p class="right"> +<i>November 19, 1917.</i></p> + +<p class="nind"> +<span class="dropcap">D</span>O you not see that the unifying influence of America is already being +felt in the war? Do you not see how America, through the President of +the United States, is drawing the Allies together? That is her destiny, +to assemble all nations in a brotherhood of democratic freedom and +mutual helpfulness. This demand of President Wilson for a council, for +unified action in prosecuting the war, is one of the most significant +events in history. For the first time a group of friendly nations +may really work as one,<span class="pagenum" id="Page_172">[Pg 172]</span> putting aside all personal jealousies and +fears—for a great world end.</p> + +<p>It is the lever of world unity which shall lift the burden of +wastefulness that heretofore has cost the world half the fruits of its +labor.</p> + +<p>Oh, nations of Europe, do not fear the great free land across the +waters! She wants nothing of you, save now the privilege of helping you +to save yourselves, and in the future to work with you for the ideals +that will make you all strong.</p> + +<p>The Anglo-Saxon race must again be like one family, though in two +houses; but bye and bye, when America shall have amalgamated her +foreign residents with herself in one indissoluble race, she will still +be your sister, O Britain! and you two shall counsel together for the +further enlightening of the world.</p> + +<p>Sometimes I go high in the etheric regions<span class="pagenum" id="Page_173">[Pg 173]</span> and look down upon the +earth, so high that the horizons bound one hemi-sphere after another. +The horizons of time are also thus expanded, and I see ahead of and +behind the present hour. I see the causes that have brought the world +to its present <i>impasse</i>. You will have to remove the wall that +separates you from the age of enlightened brotherhood.</p> + +<p>You have read about the golden age of the past. Did you think it was a +fanciful story, to amuse children in the fire-light? I tell you it will +sometime be realized again, and on this earth—now rent by hatred and +war.</p> + +<p>You must retain all you have won from the mines of the earth and from +the activity of your own brains. Inventions and arts, they will all +have their place in the new age that is coming, and hitherto unimagined +art and science will add further<span class="pagenum" id="Page_174">[Pg 174]</span> to the glory and comfort of life. It +will be the fault of your own folly and blindness if you lose anything +of value to the soul. The soul needs matter as matter needs the soul. +Because we look forward to an age without hatred and wasteful division, +we do not look forward to an age of idleness and inertia. Limitless +will be the opportunities for genius, for talent, for ambition.</p> + +<p>The greatest aristocracy of earth is the aristocracy of mind and soul, +and mind and soul will be cultivated. The education of the future will +be not only practical but humanistic; nothing will be thrown away +that makes for beauty or for thought. The treasures of dead languages +will not be thrown into the dust-bin. After the labor necessary to +provide for the material wants of the world, time will be left for +art and beauty and scholarship,<span class="pagenum" id="Page_175">[Pg 175]</span> for social discussion and religious +exaltation. The mystic also will have his place.</p> + +<p>Three years ago I would not have dared to prophesy a <i>happy</i> +outcome for this tragic fracas. More than two years ago I told you that +the battle had been won in the regions above the earth—won by the +powers of good, who labor for the welfare of mankind. How <i>can</i> +you doubt? If the war had ended two years ago, the world might have +gone on more or less as it went before. But now it can never go back to +the old selfish ways. In the need that will follow the war the races +will help one another; they will turn to one another as brothers and +sisters turn.</p> + +<p>Never lose faith that out of this tragedy will come the guerdon of the +world’s desire. I see it, I live for it (for I live more vitally than +you); and that you may<span class="pagenum" id="Page_176">[Pg 176]</span> see and live for it also I struggle against the +lightness of my present body, that has a tendency to carry me away from +the dense regions where you suffer and pray, you men of earth.</p> + +<p>You who have followed me from those early days when I wrote you letters +from the lower astral world, describing as a traveller in a strange +country the things I had seen; you who followed me through the hells +of astral turmoil during the early months of the war, follow me yet a +little further. I will show you the way as it has been shown to me. +And you will walk in that way, though stumbling at first and groping +for the thread of purpose through the labyrinth of reconstruction, in +the days that shall be called days of peace. For perfect peace will +not come at once. You will have to work for it, as you have worked +for triumph in war.<span class="pagenum" id="Page_177">[Pg 177]</span> But if you have faith, you will ride the stormy +waters into the haven of a new earth. And a new heaven will spread +above the earth, for heaven is largely peopled from below; it recruits +its population from below. No new angels are being created now. The +outgoing Breath rests, and the indrawing Breath is about to begin. +You who have practised “yogi breathing” know how difficult it is to +hold the breath <i>out</i> for more than a short time. It can only be +done by force of will. The tendency is to return, as the tendency in +the race is to return towards the Source from which it came. It is +therefore I say that you cannot retard, save for a little while, the +flow of the race-breath towards harmony and peace and love.</p> + +<p>This struggle of men with each other in the selfishness of separation +is like the struggle of the yogi not to inbreathe—the<span class="pagenum" id="Page_178">[Pg 178]</span> young and +inexperienced yogi; for the wise one breathes at stated intervals, and +knows when the period is full.</p> + +<p>The race knows. It will follow the law of the outflow and inflow. You +cannot prevent it. So yield yourselves to the current that would carry +you back to God.</p> + +<p>It will not be a hurried journey, for the inflowing breath is measured +too. There will be time for labor and for rest, and to gather flowers +by the way.</p> + +<p>Do you fear the return to God, however slow it may be? I who have +tasted death know there is nothing to fear; and I who have tasted the +new life tell you there is everything to hope.</p> + + +<hr class="chap x-ebookmaker-drop"> + +<div class="chapter"> +<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_179">[Pg 179]</span></p> + +<h2 class="nobreak" id="LETTER_XXIII">LETTER XXIII<br> +THE STARS OF MAN’S DESTINY</h2> +</div> + + +<p class="right"> +<i>November 24, 1917.</i></p> + +<p class="nind"> +<span class="dropcap">H</span>AS it occurred to you that the powers that have in charge the progress +of the world may be obliged to use methods repugnant to your desires, +in order to accomplish inevitable purposes at the time when they are +due? Man, by rebelling against the tendencies of cosmic progress, may +retard it—for a time; but when the wave rises high enough it will +carry him along against his will, and inevitable effects are produced +in spite of his rebellion.</p> + +<p>Take this war. The hour had struck on the world clock when races of +men<span class="pagenum" id="Page_180">[Pg 180]</span> should work together for a common purpose. They rebelled in their +fear that each would not get his share of world benefits; so the world +was attacked by a common enemy, and the races have <i>had</i> to +unite for a common purpose, that of preserving civilization from the +destruction that threatens it.</p> + +<p>Could this war have been prevented? By prevision, yes. But no one with +influence enough to be heard respectfully had that prevision. Those who +stand high in the world’s regard have generally so concentrated upon +their individual work and their individual ambitions, that they have +lost the ability to see impersonally and to see the world as a whole. +Some can see as a whole the tendencies of their own country; few can +see the world tendency.</p> + +<p>And I tell you now that if, when this<span class="pagenum" id="Page_181">[Pg 181]</span> universal war is ended, the +races do not recognize the necessity to unite in a federation for the +good of all, there will be after forty years little left of all that +has been accomplished during that marvellous nineteenth century which +saw material progress equalling that of the preceding two thousand +years.</p> + +<p>Can man not see the stars of his destiny without being struck on the +head with a hammer? If man will not work for the good of the whole, +then the whole has to be threatened. It is so threatened now, if you +could see it.</p> + + +<hr class="chap x-ebookmaker-drop"> + +<div class="chapter"> +<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_182">[Pg 182]</span></p> + +<h2 class="nobreak" id="LETTER_XXIV">LETTER XXIV<br> +MELANCHOLY</h2> +</div> + + +<p class="right"> +<i>December 23, 1917.</i></p> + +<p class="nind"> +<span class="dropcap">I</span> WANT to write about melancholy, not the depression produced by bad +digestion or pressure on the nerves, but that cloud of darkness that +sometimes descends upon the most brilliant mind and the stoutest heart, +making them for a while useless for any purpose—except that of drawing +knowledge from the experience of melancholy itself.</p> + +<p>Not all sadness originates in the heart that is sad, and fear, the +basis of melancholy, may be suggested to a soul on earth by a soul +beyond the earth. You do not<span class="pagenum" id="Page_183">[Pg 183]</span> realize what a cloud of dissatisfied and +fearful souls this holocaust has let loose in the invisible regions; +they flock round the sensitive souls upon the earth, longing to “tell +their troubles,” longing for sympathy and help. They are no more +self-reliant than many in your world whose very presence depresses a +stronger fellow being.</p> + +<p>Now whenever you feel that cloud of melancholy, stop and ascertain +the cause. You have observed the workings of suggestion. If you +find nothing in your environment or circumstances to fill you +with hopelessness, would it not be safe to assume—unless you are +bilious—that the cloud gathered elsewhere and merely descended upon +you?</p> + +<p>The student who hopes some day—though maybe many lives in the +future—to achieve adeptship, may as well begin<span class="pagenum" id="Page_184">[Pg 184]</span> now to control and +direct his thoughts and feelings.</p> + +<p>You need not be melancholy unless you want to be. There are texts, +mantras, adages, even copy-book maxims you can recall and meditate +upon, that will drive away the worst fit of the blues. Here are a few:</p> + +<p>Pleasure and pain are opposite expressions of one force.</p> + +<p>I am a part of God, and no harm can overtake God.</p> + +<p>What is the truth hidden in this well of discontent?</p> + +<p>If I go deep enough into this midnight earth, I shall come out on the +other side where the sun shines.</p> + +<p>I was happy yesterday, and I am still I.</p> + +<p>A frightened dog will never scare away a robber.</p> + +<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_185">[Pg 185]</span></p> + +<p>If all these ills befall me, it will be an exercise of power to conquer +them.</p> + +<p>—Not very profound, perhaps; but you can write better ones if you +wish. I am merely illustrating one process of shaking off the burden of +dread.</p> + +<p>Why should you men dread anything? Even death is only dreadful when you +are afraid of it.</p> + +<p>The Masters enjoy difficulties. They are the acid that tests the gold +of their mastership.</p> + +<p>And speaking from a lower plane, there is pleasure in doing any +difficult thing. Why, in the writing of a big novel there is more +actual work, mental and physical, than in overcoming some great +misfortune. It is less work to go out and overcome a threatened +misfortune than it is to write a short story.</p> + +<p>How anybody in good health and with<span class="pagenum" id="Page_186">[Pg 186]</span> even ordinary ability can yield to +melancholy is a question for a philosopher.</p> + +<p>I am not talking now of grief for dead friends, or for false friends, +which grief is far worse; but of the fear of some imaginary disaster +which in all probability will never happen.</p> + +<p>The surest way to attract disasters is to imagine them. You can create +almost anything if you imagine it strongly enough—even joy and courage.</p> + +<p>A Master once told me that the control and exorcism of melancholy was a +greater test of power than the control of desire.</p> + +<p>Both often come from outside, are suggested to the receptive, passive +mind. Now the Master entertains only those suggestions that can +strengthen his purposes. If you have a friend who makes you courageous +by his very presence, cultivate<span class="pagenum" id="Page_187">[Pg 187]</span> his society. If you have a friend who +makes you melancholy, either teach him better or get rid of him; send +him to a doctor.</p> + +<p>What is the use in our talking about occult power if we have not power +over our moods? Practise on moods. As an exercise, some time when you +are active, force yourself to be lazy. When you are lazy and not tired, +force yourself to be active. Natural fatigue should not be pressed too +far, it is a mere reaction; but indolence is not fatigue. It is in the +physical what melancholy is in the mental.</p> + +<p>As another exercise, when your mind circles round and round something, +switch it off as you would switch off an electric light. Turn and think +of something else. You can do it.</p> + +<p>And, by the way, one of the best cures for melancholy is an hour of +mathematical<span class="pagenum" id="Page_188">[Pg 188]</span> calculations. I defy anybody to be melancholy in the arms +of geometry or trigonometry. Why? You cannot think in mathematical +terms and of yourself at the same time. People always think of +themselves when they are melancholy.</p> + +<p>But you tell me that you became melancholy the other day in thinking +about a friend who had lost her job. Think again. By wondering what you +could do for this friend and whether you could afford it, you began to +fear.... Is it not so?</p> + +<p>You may be sad because a friend is in trouble, but you cannot be +melancholy for anybody but yourself.</p> + +<p>Another can make you melancholy by making you morbid and fearful.</p> + +<p>Our thoughts are so chained to our ego that it is difficult for +them to escape for long. But are you ever melancholy<span class="pagenum" id="Page_189">[Pg 189]</span> when creating +imaginatively a scene in a book? Could you be melancholy while figuring +the “polar elevation” of a planet, or computing one of those converse +“primary directions”? I see you smile. When you are engaged with +figures you forget yourself. Now take my advice. When auto-suggestion +is powerless to conquer melancholy, draw up an astrological figure in a +low latitude with that table of oblique ascensions that I saw you using +yesterday, and work out the converse primaries and the longitude of +Vulcan.</p> + +<p>You remind me that when on earth I had small interest in astrology. But +I am talking about mathematical calculations.</p> + + +<hr class="chap x-ebookmaker-drop"> + +<div class="chapter"> +<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_190">[Pg 190]</span></p> + +<h2 class="nobreak" id="LETTER_XXV">LETTER XXV<br> +COMPENSATORY PLAY</h2> +</div> + + +<p class="right"> +<i>February 1, 1918.</i></p> + +<p class="nind"> +<span class="dropcap">I</span> HAVE looked in on you occasionally during the last few weeks, pleased +with your resting for a time.</p> + +<p>The ambitious and energetic are prone to underestimate the value of +occasional idleness. You cannot run even a machine all the time without +oil and rest. Neither can the most vigorous engineer-soul run its brain +and body too long without letting them cool. The farmer knows when to +let a field lie fallow.</p> + +<p>“After the war” it is to be hoped that the soldiers who have worked so +long at one labor—that of war—may be given a<span class="pagenum" id="Page_191">[Pg 191]</span> period of compensatory +play, doing nothing, before being replaced in the hive of industry. Let +them enjoy the breezes and the perfume of idleness for a little time; +the reaction from that rest will send them back into the workshops with +renewed desire for activity. If the world has to get along with less +for a few weeks, that will not hurt the world.</p> + +<p>In the years to come there will be more rest and recreation in +America. In Europe there is going to be some degree of fatigue after +this war, and America can easily hold her own if she carries a lower +steam-pressure.</p> + +<p>The idle hours are sometimes as valuable as those that are spent in +labor. It is in so-called idle hours that we meditate, get acquainted +with ourselves, build air castles, which are working-plans for our +edifice of the future. Day dreams are<span class="pagenum" id="Page_192">[Pg 192]</span> good. I had a day dream during +my life, and it was really the working-plan for the future I am +building now. I wanted to get back something I had lost, and I have got +it back. You wonder what it was? I do not mind telling you. In a former +life I went far along the road towards mastership. Then once upon a +time I slipped back a long way. My day dream was to recover that lost +ground, and I have recovered much of it out here.</p> + +<p>If I had not left the world with that day dream vivid in my +consciousness, I should not have made the progress and the recovery I +have made.</p> + +<p>I was talking the other day with an old friend—a very dear old +friend—who came out here a year or two ago, and she and I agreed that +the day dreams we had dreamed together were among the most valuable +products of our recent life.</p> + +<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_193">[Pg 193]</span></p> + +<p>She is revelling in the recovery of her own lost ground, and she +will run me a good race as the years go on. Yes, one can race across +recovered ground of adeptship.</p> + +<p>My friend said laughingly the other day that she had made more plans +since coming out here than she could execute in a long while.</p> + +<p>“Take your time,” I advised, “in the execution. You have all eternity.”</p> + +<p>She looked at me in the old way I remember so well, and said:</p> + +<p>“Time may be made for slaves, but eternity is made for masters.”</p> + +<p>She too is glad that she came out. She had done one kind of work long +enough, and is now enjoying another.</p> + +<p>Is she helping me, you wonder? Well, no, unless you count the pleasure +of our renewed association as a help. Why<span class="pagenum" id="Page_194">[Pg 194]</span> should she help me, or I +her? Our work is our own.</p> + +<p>You in the world should help each other when you can; but out here we +of equal stature help each other by <i>being</i>. That is a good help, +though, the being together sometimes.</p> + +<p>What a wonderful expression, by the way, “being together”! What poetry! +Not working together, nor playing together, but simply being. You +must often have felt that joy when with a loved friend. Words are not +necessary for that enjoyment. Words often lessen the enjoyment by the +very effort of uttering them. Effortless being! Even the birds enjoy +it, and the rose could give you valuable secrets of that joy.</p> + +<p>In the world I have heard busybodies say of a beautiful woman that she +did<span class="pagenum" id="Page_195">[Pg 195]</span> nothing. What of it? A rose does not run a sewing-machine, or +write books.</p> + +<p>Joy is coming back to the world. It has been long absent. Being for its +own sake has taken on new meanings in the minds of those who are glad +to be still alive.</p> + +<p>To have passed through all the perils of a long war and still to “be” a +living man is something to make the soul wonder.</p> + +<p>The men who have fought in this war from the beginning should not be +crowded too hard when at last they can stretch their limbs in the +hammocks of peace. They have earned the right. As they spin their +soldier yarns, gaze at them with respect. They passed through the +shadow of death for you. That God has retained them among the active +cells of His body is because He has need of them still; but it does not +mean that they should go on<span class="pagenum" id="Page_196">[Pg 196]</span> working for you every minute. Suppose you +work for them for a while. When they are rested they will join you in +your labor.</p> + +<p>Last night I listened to two soldiers talking, and this is what they +said to each other:</p> + +<p>“What will you do, John, when it’s all over?”</p> + +<p>“I’ll lie in the bath tub an hour every morning, in the warm, soft, +soapy water; and in the afternoon I’ll call on one dear girl after +another, and drink tea, and listen to their talk. And what will you do?”</p> + +<p>“Oh, I’ll just look at my wife and hold her hand.”</p> + +<p>Idle talk, you think? That depends upon what you mean by idle talk. To +me that talk was immensely significant.</p> + +<p>Soon after our little skirmish with<span class="pagenum" id="Page_197">[Pg 197]</span> Spain I remember hearing an active +woman say of her husband that he had never been good for anything since +he came back from Cuba.</p> + +<p>“Well,” I said, “he was good for a lot in Cuba.”</p> + +<p>The Spanish-American war! A fly beside an elephant, as compared with +this war.</p> + +<p>And the German is tired, too. You may not have to overwork yourself to +keep up with him after the war.</p> + + +<hr class="chap x-ebookmaker-drop"> + +<div class="chapter"> +<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_198">[Pg 198]</span></p> + +<h2 class="nobreak" id="LETTER_XXVI">LETTER XXVI<br> +THE AQUARIAN AGE</h2> +</div> + + +<p class="right"> +<i>February 2, 1918.</i></p> + +<p class="nind"> +<span class="dropcap">Y</span>OU have wondered why the Masters speak now of the interests of the +common man, while in former times they said little about them. But do +you not know that when the need for a thing is come, the work of the +Masters with the world is to urge the world in the direction of its +destiny?</p> + +<p>You have read of the iron age, the golden age, etc., and that the +golden age follows the iron. You may have wondered how two states so +utterly dissimilar could be juxtaposed. Now between the iron age and +the golden age there is a period<span class="pagenum" id="Page_199">[Pg 199]</span> of transition, a period short as +compared with one of the great ages, for example the longest one, the +golden, which is given as one million, seven hundred and twenty-eight +thousand years.</p> + +<p>I have not visited you this evening to announce that the golden age +is immediately at hand. Oh, no! But we approach the termination of a +minor cycle, and the period of transition from the present state of the +world to the next<a id="FNanchor_3" href="#Footnote_3" class="fnanchor">[3]</a> will be of about one thousand years. That is to +say, this period of one thousand years will bring us to the middle of +what is called the Aquarian age, for the half of one of these lesser +Zodiacal periods is approximately of that length.<a id="FNanchor_4" href="#Footnote_4" class="fnanchor">[4]</a></p> + +<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_200">[Pg 200]</span></p> + +<p>What is the Aquarian age? You know the humanitarian nature of Aquarius. +You also know the characteristics of the planet Uranus, to which +Aquarius is now attributed. Well, the inference is obvious. We shall +have an Aquarian world, and a world where things will go after the +manner of that strange and abrupt planet Uranus.</p> + +<p>The old-fashioned world is passing away, the Jupiterian world, and we +are entering upon a period of change, political, social, religious and +personal. There is going to be an attempt at a federation of states, a +federation of souls. Nothing but this war could have effected it—with +the suddenness characteristic of that mysterious planet Uranus.</p> + +<p>In the later Aquarian age the creative will of man will have such +scope as the world has not dreamed of. It will be set<span class="pagenum" id="Page_201">[Pg 201]</span> free from the +limitations which have held it. When all men are assured of a means of +livelihood, how free they will be in <i>mind</i>! The freedom of the +past in a free country like America is nothing like the freedom which +the new age will usher in.</p> + +<p>When education is really universal, the moral as well as the mental +will be trained, and new ideas will have room to develop in the +developing brain.</p> + +<p>Be not afraid, O world! Three years ago, even we who see far out here +had grave doubts for the future of your planet. But the great Masters +always told us that the world would pass through its period of trial, +still poised on its old axis, and that the <i>forces which make for +order would triumph over the forces which make for disorder</i>. Have +you not noticed in the psychic world a lessening of strain? Have you +not noticed an absence of the hostile<span class="pagenum" id="Page_202">[Pg 202]</span> and adverse beings that in the +early months of the war seemed to threaten the earth and you and all +men with a triumphant malice? That is a straw which shows the way of +“the winds that blow between the worlds.”</p> + +<p>I am glad you are a keen observer of psychic states. That faculty of +observation will be of use to you in the years that are to come. Those +who cannot adjust to new conditions will pass out for a time and return +later with the fresh outlook of children, to take up their experience +in the new age.</p> + +<p>There will be much rebellion in the beginning. Things are not so stable +as they <i>seemed</i> four years ago. The war has proved that they were +not really stable.</p> + +<p>The wave of psychic research that is now sweeping across the world will +wear thin the veil between the visible and the<span class="pagenum" id="Page_203">[Pg 203]</span> invisible. More and +more men and women will live in two worlds at the same time; for the +two worlds occupy the same space, and their differences are differences +of consciousness, of vibration, the latter including a difference in +states of matter.</p> + +<p>Men will grow more magnetic under the influences that will play upon +them. They will affect each other more and more, and that is one reason +why greater freedom will be necessary. With the greater sensitiveness +which the new time will bring, it will be more difficult for large +families to live together a common life. While the tendency is for +all mankind to be one family in sympathy, more and more it will be +recognized that each man requires privacy for his best development. The +tyranny of the family will give place to freedom <i>in</i> the family. +Strip family<span class="pagenum" id="Page_204">[Pg 204]</span> life of its tyranny and it may be very charming.</p> + +<p>The sensitive and highly charged beings of the new age would explode +if they should be obliged to sit every evening round the family +“centre-table,” listening to the maunderings of the least progressive +among them, who by reason of greater age assumed the right to lay down +the law. This does not mean that children will not honor their parents; +but under the new dispensation parents will honor their children’s need +for the individual life, and will give it to them—thereby securing +their own freedom.</p> + +<p>The freedom of the later Aquarian age will be manifest in the mind. +“Heresy” will cease to exist; the word will become obsolete.</p> + +<p>The sin against the Holy Ghost will be<span class="pagenum" id="Page_205">[Pg 205]</span> understood as the attempt to +enchain the will of another.</p> + +<p>Great friendliness will result from this mutual tolerance. We hate only +those whom we fear, and in a tolerant world there will be few seeds of +hatred.</p> + +<p>All men will study; the school is only the first stage of study. When +man becomes his own schoolmaster he makes great strides.</p> + +<p>What you know of art, music and literature can give you but a vague +idea of what these arts will become in the age that is to follow. Take +the catchwords of the immediate past, impressionism, for example. It +will be applied to all the arts.</p> + +<p>Science is only in its swaddling-clothes. Aquarius is a sign of +air, the old books tell us, and the air holds many secrets which +you must take for your own, not only secrets of transportation but +psychological<span class="pagenum" id="Page_206">[Pg 206]</span> secrets. The airplane and psychical research grew up +together.</p> + +<p>You have not taken the last redoubt of electricity. That also has +treasures for you. When you can draw <i>that</i> from the air where it +hides from you and laughs, you will have little need of coal, and the +miners can leave the bowels of the earth and play in the sunshine of +the heights.</p> + +<p>Inventions! I see in the “pattern world” I told you about in my first +book many things that would puzzle you down here. New fabrics will +be worn before many years, and the patient silkworm will not be the +aristocrat it now is.</p> + +<p>The human ego is coming into its own. When it loses selfishness it will +find itself. That is not a paradox for its own sake, but the statement +of a psychological fact.</p> + +<p>The seeming chaos will take form, and<span class="pagenum" id="Page_207">[Pg 207]</span> in it you will find new +beauties. I will not conceal from you the knowledge that many will use +the word chaos during the reconstruction period. But be at peace. The +formless shall take on form. The clairvoyance that is developing in man +will help him to see, where the eyes of his old faith would have been +blind. He will trust the future and trust his brother, and will not be +deceived. The intuition of the soul will point man to the substance +which he needs for his well-being. Behind and within the air is the +ether, which is substance, which is God. And man will take it for +his uses, with the consent of God, who joys in giving Himself to His +children.</p> + +<p>As I said before, the Masters urge the world along in the direction +of its destiny; but they are too wise to hurry it. They<span class="pagenum" id="Page_208">[Pg 208]</span> see the face +of the cosmic clock, and they wake the world at the hour of the new +sunrise. We are blest in being their servants.</p> + + +<div class="footnotes"><h3>FOOTNOTES:</h3> + +<div class="footnote"> + +<p class="nind"><a id="Footnote_3" href="#FNanchor_3" class="label">[3]</a> +Still far short of the golden age, probably.—E. B.</p> + +</div> + +<div class="footnote"> + +<p class="nind"><a id="Footnote_4" href="#FNanchor_4" class="label">[4]</a> +This does not correspond exactly with the popular Hindoo +reckoning. But automatic writings are what they are. I can cut out +repetitions, etc., but I cannot re-write, add to, or distort.—E. B.</p> + +</div> +</div> + + +<hr class="chap x-ebookmaker-drop"> + +<div class="chapter"> +<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_209">[Pg 209]</span></p> +<h2 class="nobreak" id="LETTER_XXVII">LETTER XXVII<br> +THE WATCHERS</h2> +</div> + + +<p class="right"> +<i>February 3, 1918.</i></p> + +<p class="nind"> +<span class="dropcap">I</span> STOOD one day before a great soul that had renounced the rest in +heaven, and questioned him as to the work that called us loudest. What +do you think he said?</p> + +<p>“<i>Labor with those who fear for the future.</i>”</p> + +<p>“Are there so many, then, who look forward with apprehension?” I asked.</p> + +<p>“All those who think and see and have responsibilities are +apprehensive,” he replied.</p> + +<p>Then I wandered here and there about America, looking in upon all sorts +of men<span class="pagenum" id="Page_210">[Pg 210]</span> and a few women. And I read in their minds a great uncertainty.</p> + +<p>“Sufficient unto the day is the evil thereof,” I thought so intensely +<i>at</i> them that many responded with a hopeful smile.</p> + +<p>Yes, I can win response from many people when I think strongly enough +in their company.</p> + +<p>The faith of one great soul out here has helped many to stand steady +when the winds blew strong against them. He knows that America cannot +fail of her destiny; but that she may not take a wrong tack, he would +guide the hand and brush the mists from before the eye of the skipper.</p> + +<p>There are often mists before the path of the “ship of State” in these +grey days. When Wilson took over the railroads, what courage was there! +When all is over there will be many to criticize and<span class="pagenum" id="Page_211">[Pg 211]</span> blame him; but +criticism and blame are ever the rewards of those who depersonalize +themselves and labor for the good of their country or the world. The +man who is great enough to cast his personality overboard is not hurt +by criticism. It is only the personality that can be hurt. The soul +stands serene and pure above the adverse storms.</p> + +<p>I do not advise all men to disregard their personality. Only those who +bear great responsibilities may safely become impersonal. The small +man, the undeveloped man, could not persuade his soul to take the place +of his lesser self. For the soul must be persuaded to descend and +dwell in the personality. Most souls are only partially incarnated. +The higher self of most men dwells above and apart. It is their +Silent Watcher; but it seldom acts save to warn and save. It leaves +the<span class="pagenum" id="Page_212">[Pg 212]</span> lesser self to acquire experience and learn its lessons through +suffering and joy, through success and failure. But when the man has so +far evolved that his acts become of more than personal significance, +then the soul may descend and truly guide and influence the man, for +the designs of the soul are ever beyond the personal. It is a conscious +part of the great whole, a conscious part of God whom it worships and +serves, however the lower self may be immersed in trivialities and +blasphemies.</p> + +<p>In any man who has not lost his soul the Higher Watcher has an +interest. For the Watcher is One and he is many. He is your link with +God, Oh, men! He is your link with immortality.</p> + +<p>You do not meet him merely by dying, for you may dwell long in the +astral and lower mental world before meeting him face to face. But if +you can ascend after<span class="pagenum" id="Page_213">[Pg 213]</span> death to the higher regions, you will find him +there waiting for you. You may bring to him all the fine fruits of your +recent life, and he will enjoy them with you.</p> + +<p>I have met my soul face to face; but I am unable to remain in the +higher regions in peaceful contemplation of his beauty while there is +so much work to be done for the races on earth as calls to me now. Bye +and bye I shall re-ascend; but when I go to heaven for a long sojourn +you will hear from me no more.</p> + +<p>Yes, I too have seen your soul. But I need not describe its face to +you, who see it better than I. Cling to it. The failure of mortal +friendship has no power to shatter the faith of one who can reach to +his own Silent Watcher. And the soul of the faithless friend is pure +as his own, and understands all things. Friendships, like loves, are +made in heaven, and true friendship<span class="pagenum" id="Page_214">[Pg 214]</span> cannot die. Its roots are deep in +waters of eternity. It is deathless as the Ygdrasil, and its roots are +also above and its branches below.</p> + +<p>But it is better to fail in business than to fail in friendship.</p> + +<p>If a man is great and strong enough, he may draw down his soul to dwell +with him wherever he may be. Then the man is a whole man, he is an +adept. Lincoln is such a man, such a soul. He has become one with his +Higher Watcher, and the two that are one can work even in the regions +of the astral. But such a marriage of heaven and earth is uncommon, as +adepts are uncommon.</p> + +<p>Your father in heaven is one with the Father, and if you are really one +with your father in heaven he can dwell with you even on earth.</p> + +<p>The higher souls of men are closer to<span class="pagenum" id="Page_215">[Pg 215]</span> men now than they have been +for ages. The doors have been opened. Grief and terror and pain and +devotion to ideals of duty have raised the race of men in three and +a half years as it could not have been raised in a hundred years of +peace. If the race falls back now, it will be a lost opportunity. But +the race will not fall back.</p> + + +<hr class="chap x-ebookmaker-drop"> + +<div class="chapter"> +<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_216">[Pg 216]</span></p> + +<h2 class="nobreak" id="LETTER_XXVIII">LETTER XXVIII<br> +A RITUAL OF FELLOWSHIP</h2> +</div> + + +<p class="right"> +<i>February 8, 1918.</i></p> + +<p class="nind"> +<span class="dropcap">I</span> HAVE been waiting for you half an hour, as you sat sewing a seam and +thinking of your friends in France. It warms the heart now to think of +France. The tie between the two great republics is being drawn closer +and closer.</p> + +<p>Shall I tell you an occult secret? The French mixed their blood with +ours long ago, and we have loved them ever since. We are now mixing our +blood with the blood of France, and France will love us in the days +that are to come.</p> + +<p>It is a ritual of fellowship, that mixing of blood. English and French +and Americans<span class="pagenum" id="Page_217">[Pg 217]</span> and Italians, Irish, Scotch, and all the others. Is +there not a foundation for brotherhood? The blended blood cries from +the ground for love.</p> + +<p>I see in the eyes of the French their feeling for our men as they march +by, or help in the little ways to which American boys are accustomed. +Never again will they look upon us as queer people from beyond the sea.</p> + +<p>We have travelled in their country and spent our money and swaggered +and talked through our noses; but now we are living and dying with +them, and we are brothers of mixed blood.</p> + +<p>Yes, go back to France when you can. They always loved you because you +loved them, but now you will see that they also love your native land.</p> + + +<hr class="chap x-ebookmaker-drop"> + +<div class="chapter"> +<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_218">[Pg 218]</span></p> + +<h2 class="nobreak" id="LETTER_XXIX">LETTER XXIX<br> +RECRUITING AGENTS</h2> +</div> + + +<p class="right"> +<i>February, 1918.</i></p> + +<p class="nind"> +<span class="dropcap">F</span>OR a day or two after America declared that a state of war existed, I +spent most of my time in going about this country, studying conditions +in both worlds. Even before that survey I had a general idea of how +matters stood in those worlds; but I wanted to freshen my memory, for I +had a great idea. Many times during my life on earth I had told myself +that I had a great idea, and sometimes I put it into execution, and +sometimes I failed in doing so. But this time I was determined there +should be no failure.</p> + +<p>When I had seen from my survey that<span class="pagenum" id="Page_219">[Pg 219]</span> the materials were all at hand, I +sought out a great man, spirit, or whatever you choose to call him.</p> + +<p>Then together we mapped out our campaign. Here are the main points of +it:</p> + +<p>Conservation—where the negative forces should be applied.</p> + +<p>Construction—with our positive forces.</p> + +<p>Coordination—with the synthetic forces.</p> + +<p>We marshalled a group of those strong-minded, strong-willed men and +women who had been out here long enough to know not only their way +about, but how to impress their thoughts upon material-bodied men and +women. These were dispatched here and there, to think, think, think, in +the neighborhood of senators and congressmen, chiefs of industry and +members of the general public. The burden of their impressed thought +was conservation<span class="pagenum" id="Page_220">[Pg 220]</span> of food, conservation of expenditure, conservation of +all material that would be needed for the activities of war.</p> + +<p>Others who were filled with a great love for the land of their latest +birth, America, went about in bands instilling their patriotic +enthusiasm into the hearts and minds of those millions who had too +long taken America as a matter of course. They sang patriotic songs, +and though they could not be heard by the ears of earth, the spirit of +their singing could be felt, and they accomplished much.</p> + +<p>Then others, the wisest among old leaders of men, were busy in quelling +disorder, in suppressing discontent with the war. Wherever a group of +wild-eyed, peace-prating “idealists” got together to talk twaddle, +there was one or more of these unseen auditors to put the brakes on +responsive<span class="pagenum" id="Page_221">[Pg 221]</span> enthusiasm to the dangerous principles enunciated.</p> + +<p>I will not bore you by giving all the details of this plan of help +which we labored to make effective. But there were enrolled more than +one million beings out here who have pledged themselves to serve until +their services are no longer required. That may not seem to you a great +number to help invisibly a nation of more than one hundred millions; +but one to every hundred is enough among the active workers, for each +is free to choose assistants among those younger in earth experience.</p> + +<p>To the one who acted as our commander-in-chief, the generals of this +auxiliary army made reports, and many were the strange orders he gave +them. But no one questioned his wisdom, and the results have proved it +over and over.</p> + +<p>One time when I wanted to go North,<span class="pagenum" id="Page_222">[Pg 222]</span> he sent me to the South, and in +Mobile I learned why my course was changed.</p> + +<p>It is a wonder that the legislators at the various capitols have not +“seen ghosts” during the last months. Perhaps they have. But men are +becoming accustomed to the idea of us now. That is one of the good +results of the war. In looking across the border for their loved ones, +they may encounter the Teachers, even the angels of their loved ones, +and be enlarged in mind.</p> + +<p>I had an amusing experience in the city of ——. There is a “pacifist” +there who has a considerable influence among the members of a certain +set, and I found that when he began one of his “philosophic” talks to +one or more persons, for he has not lectured publicly, I could bewilder +him by speaking in his ear and answering his questions in a way that +made him wonder.<span class="pagenum" id="Page_223">[Pg 223]</span> For, strange to say perhaps, he could hear me. But +not believing in the possibility of communication between the worlds, +he thought he was having “clairaudient hallucinations,” and consulted +a doctor who told him that he had been brooding too much about the +war. The doctor, who was not a pacifist, advised our friend to take up +ornithology.</p> + +<p>Yes, he is young—and will be young for many incarnations.</p> + +<p>We have also done our share of recruiting. Those who were later called +by the draft were merely encouraged; but there were others who needed +only the dream we sent, or the thought we whispered, to move them in +the right direction; and when a young man’s country is at war, the +right direction is generally towards the nearest recruiting station.</p> + +<p>There was a boy in —— who had been<span class="pagenum" id="Page_224">[Pg 224]</span> reading about France and the +fighting in France with a tightening at the heart, a tightening of +horror. He feared the draft. He was not a husky fellow. His labors as +bookkeeper in a bank had not developed his leg muscles, and he had a +capricious digestion. So he told himself that he would be a failure as +a soldier.</p> + +<p>But one time when in sleep he came out into our world, I met him and +invited him to take a stroll with me. Do you think I took him to a +battlefield? Oh, not! I took him to an exercise ground. You may wonder +how I could do that at night; but it chanced that he had fallen asleep +in the daytime. And I made it easy for him to see down into the world +he had temporarily left—to see the exercise ground. It interested him.</p> + +<p>And next day the labor over the ledger seemed duller and more +monotonous than<span class="pagenum" id="Page_225">[Pg 225]</span> usual. And he overheard a girl say to a friend at the +paying teller’s window, that a sallow faced clerk was not her ideal of +a man, that she liked the soldier boys.</p> + +<p>When he went for a walk after banking hours, I went along with him, and +drew his attention to some marching soldiers who had a good band. The +boy went home and looked at himself in the mirror and found that he was +sallow, and he reminded himself that he was a clerk.</p> + +<p>So he enlisted.</p> + +<p>You may wonder why I took so much trouble to gather one uninteresting +young man into the fold of Uncle Sam’s army, when we had so many +subordinate workers at that business. But I had known the boy’s father +twenty years before, and something he had said influenced <i>me</i> +towards a decision that enlightened my whole after life.</p> + +<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_226">[Pg 226]</span></p> + +<p>When that boy returns he will be no longer sallow-faced, and he will be +a hero—not a clerk.</p> + +<p>I like to pay my debts.</p> + + +<hr class="chap x-ebookmaker-drop"> + +<div class="chapter"> +<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_227">[Pg 227]</span></p> + +<h2 class="nobreak" id="LETTER_XXX">LETTER XXX<br> +THE VIRUS OF DISRUPTION</h2> +</div> + + +<p class="right"> +<i>February 16, 1918.</i></p> + +<p class="nind"> +“<span class="dropcap">F</span>REEDOM with self-restraint and social responsibility” would be a good +motto for Americans in the years that are before them.</p> + +<p>The underground and overground propaganda of Bolshevism, Anarchism, +etc., inspired and fed by the forces of destruction, can be +successfully combated by the spirit of order, of restraint, of +responsibility to the body politic.</p> + +<p>The end of this war will not be the end of confusion. The world-soul +has been inoculated with the virus of disruption, and it will need +the wills of millions working<span class="pagenum" id="Page_228">[Pg 228]</span> together for a common end to expel the +poison and restore the body of humanity to health and security.</p> + +<p>America as we know it was born of protest against oppression, and the +love of liberty, father and mother, positive and negative, in the +old days. If now the protest against oppression degenerates into the +protest against all restraint, and if the love of liberty degenerates +into the love of license, then I may tell you that those who cannot +govern themselves have to be governed from outside.</p> + +<p>The human race is passing through a period of initiation. The morally +weak and the weak of will are always in danger of being carried away. +The spirit of destruction finds them ready tools with which to work its +will.</p> + +<p>The kingdom of heaven is not immediately at hand, and full seven years +will be<span class="pagenum" id="Page_229">[Pg 229]</span> needed to <i>settle the consciousness</i> of mankind after the +shaking-up it has received. The dregs, as usual in such cases, have +risen and diffused themselves throughout the fluid of the cup.</p> + +<p>If there were only a dozen people in the United States who understood +or could be made to understand the <i>occult forces</i> behind the +present universal unrest, and if those twelve could work together with +unity of purpose, some here, some there, with the pen, the voice and +the will, under a leader, those twelve might lead the people out of the +wilderness. But where are they? Every leader knows that in unity is +strength.</p> + +<p>And I may mention the opposite law, that in disunity is disintegration.</p> + +<p>Bolshevist and anarchist! Finding the world not to their liking, and +being unable to adjust to environment so as to satisfy<span class="pagenum" id="Page_230">[Pg 230]</span> their love of +power, or their love of ease, these people have devoted themselves to +destroying the society in which they are unsuccessful. They believe +themselves right. There is so much of the divine in almost the worst +man, that he has to believe he is working for the right even when he +is working evil. It is necessary for a murderer to justify his act in +order to do it, unless he is swept away by blind passion, and then he +seeks to justify passion itself.</p> + +<p>The heart of man is superior to the brain of man. Almost anyone can +feel a good impulse; but the man who can think independently of his +passions is rare and isolate. Popular education does not mean universal +reasoning power. But popular education is the beginning; it is the seed +out of which will grow the tree of world-intellect.</p> + +<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_231">[Pg 231]</span></p> + +<p>I have told you of the reign of love that is at length to comfort the +hearts of mankind; but I have not told you that it is coming to-morrow +or the next day.</p> + +<p>If you can get away from the personal and the temporary, and see life +and the movements of cycles in perspective, you will see how temporary +unrest is only a stage by the way.</p> + +<p>He who adjusts to environment adjusts even to unrest. Remember that. +The supple tree feels the wind, but its roots cling tight to the soil +and the rock of individuality.</p> + +<p>Be like the supple tree, America. In the wind that sweeps across the +world, cling tight to the soil of freedom and the rock of <i>social +responsibility</i>. You can save the world if you do not lose your hold +on the soil and the rock that have steadied and sustained you.</p> + +<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_232">[Pg 232]</span></p> + +<p>The anxious eyes of a Europe in conflagration are turned in your +direction, your friends with hope, your enemies with dread. When you +threw the weight of your strong young body into the scales of justice, +you changed the destiny of the world. Yes, it was your destiny to do it.</p> + +<p>All you who have studied “occultism,” which merely means knowledge too +profound to be understood by the material-minded,—you who have studied +occultism know that to the candidate for initiation come trials and +tests, and that without them he cannot go on. Think of the human race +as a candidate for initiation. If your mind is developed beyond the +minds of your fellows—you, and you, and you—do not forget that you +are united to them by an indissoluble bond. You cannot break away from +the race. You may rise above it as the Master does, or sink beneath<span class="pagenum" id="Page_233">[Pg 233]</span> +it as the lost souls do; but the link between you and those other +fragments of God can only be broken at your peril.</p> + +<p>The Master works for the race, knowing well that he cannot safely +ignore it. Even if he made himself equal with the gods and desired to +build a world of his own, he would have to take the substance for it +from the common reservoir of substance. If like a spider he could spin +his world-web from himself, he would have to eat the common substance +to sustain himself in his power.</p> + +<p>You may as well love the race, for you cannot escape it altogether. +Even if you rise and dwell in the thin air of the kingdom of the mind, +you will feel the wind-currents from your fellows above and below. Some +will deny this, but I have made the test.</p> + +<p>I recently sought a high place for rest.<span class="pagenum" id="Page_234">[Pg 234]</span> But the needs of the world +pulled me back.</p> + +<p>The greatest need of the world for the next few years will be the +knowledge of the law of conservation. Retain, O world! the treasures +you have labored for throughout the centuries, and discard only the +worn-out garments and utensils. The wooden plough and the wooden shoe +are no longer needed in a wisely ordered world; but the sciences and +the arts you will need, and the Gothic cathedrals you destroy can never +be replaced.</p> + + +<hr class="chap x-ebookmaker-drop"> + +<div class="chapter"> +<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_235">[Pg 235]</span></p> + +<h2 class="nobreak" id="LETTER_XXXI">LETTER XXXI<br> +THE ALTAR FIRE</h2> +</div> + + +<p class="right"> +<i>February 18, 1918.</i></p> + +<p class="nind"> +<span class="dropcap">A</span>LWAYS the pull of the opposites! In all the talk of internationalism, +let us not forget nationalism. The enemy of the present hour made +great use of it, but he did not reckon with its opposite. It is not +true internationalism to support spies as commercial agents in all the +countries of earth.</p> + +<p>America of all nations is best fitted to carry on her standards: Each +for all, and all for each.</p> + +<p>But in her love for other races, for other nationalities, let her not +forget to strengthen and uphold her own.</p> + +<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_236">[Pg 236]</span></p> + +<p>“My Country, ’tis of Thee!” As that sentiment grows ever stronger in +your heart, so will your justice to other nations make you recognize +that their countries are of them. For your country was not built upon +the idea of world domination, but of freedom—for yourselves and for +all men.</p> + +<p>Your president has been called a maker of phrases. That is good. A man +who can make phrases that shall carry themselves around the world can +influence the thought of the world.</p> + +<p>“To make the world safe for democracy.” Those words will go down the +centuries.</p> + +<p>You Americans who love the storied lands of Europe, do not +underestimate this land that gave you birth. It is great as the +greatest now, and its clock has not yet struck twelve noonday. It is +still<span class="pagenum" id="Page_237">[Pg 237]</span> morning in America. The present day American is the ancestor of +the man of the Sixth Race. From many stocks he will spring, and his +blood will be blended from that of all the races which have preceded +him. He will be unique in his qualities. No man of the older races can +imitate him, for his consciousness will be his own.</p> + +<p>A man is not, as you have so often said, so many pounds of flesh and +bone and blood and sinew, but a man is a state of consciousness. It is +because you recognize their state of consciousness as being themselves, +that men and women reveal themselves to you.</p> + +<p>If—or when—you go back to Europe to live, do not forget your country. +Do not remain too long away from it, lest you lose touch with that +unique consciousness which shall flower in the Sixth Race.</p> + +<p>Yes, a great art will grow up in America.<span class="pagenum" id="Page_238">[Pg 238]</span> After another fifty years it +will be ripe. Let us hope it will not begin to rot thereafter, but like +a sound American apple preserve its solidity for a long time.</p> + +<p>This war is good for America. It is not well for a race to have so +great a material success without some pain and struggle. It is pain +that mellows the heart.</p> + +<p>America has not yet found her soul, but she will find it. Those +Americans who are now broken-hearted are finding their souls.</p> + +<p>France found her soul a long time ago, and she is now finding her +divinity. Would she have found it but for suffering? The Christ upon +the cross is greater than the Christ at the marriage supper in Cana of +Galilee.</p> + +<p>If I had not wanted you to write this book, I should have sent you +back to London, that you might experience the strain<span class="pagenum" id="Page_239">[Pg 239]</span> of air raids and +insufficient food. I should have sent you back to France, that you +might see and touch and minister to the wounded.</p> + +<p>Though you have endured the strain of the astral world at war, you have +not yet seen and touched and tasted the agony of physical suffering +that the women of France have seen and touched and tasted. But you +cannot live and suffer in too many worlds at once.</p> + +<p>Do you not think that our American boys who are fighting now in France +will be greater for the experience—whether they live or die? Life +in material form is not the only life, and those who make the great +sacrifice will gain more than they lose. It is sublime to die for an +ideal. “To make the world safe for democracy.”</p> + +<p>America is better known to Europeans now than she has been before. Many +of<span class="pagenum" id="Page_240">[Pg 240]</span> you will go and come, as you have done in the past; and a few of +you will vitalize the mutual understanding between America and Europe. +But you can do that only by glorifying your own nationality in your +hearts. I do not mean flaunting it. Let it burn as an altar fire, in +the secret temple of your being.</p> + + +<p class="nindc space-above2 space-below2">THE END</p> + + +<hr class="chap x-ebookmaker-drop"> + +<div class="chapter"> +<div class="transnote spa1"> +<p class="nindc"><b>TRANSCRIBER’S NOTES</b></p> + +<p>Simple typographical errors have been silently corrected; unbalanced +quotation marks were remedied when the change was obvious, and +otherwise left unbalanced.</p> + +<p>Punctuation, hyphenation, and spelling were made consistent when a +predominant preference was found in the original book; otherwise they +were not changed.</p> +</div></div> + +<div style='text-align:center'>*** END OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK 76990 ***</div> +</body> +</html> + diff --git a/76990-h/images/cover.jpg b/76990-h/images/cover.jpg Binary files differnew file mode 100644 index 0000000..fe58c0c --- /dev/null +++ b/76990-h/images/cover.jpg diff --git a/76990-h/images/logo.jpg b/76990-h/images/logo.jpg Binary files differnew file mode 100644 index 0000000..5ee8282 --- /dev/null +++ b/76990-h/images/logo.jpg diff --git a/LICENSE.txt b/LICENSE.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..b5dba15 --- /dev/null +++ b/LICENSE.txt @@ -0,0 +1,11 @@ +This book, including all associated images, markup, improvements, +metadata, and any other content or labor, has been confirmed to be +in the PUBLIC DOMAIN IN THE UNITED STATES. + +Procedures for determining public domain status are described in +the "Copyright How-To" at https://www.gutenberg.org. + +No investigation has been made concerning possible copyrights in +jurisdictions other than the United States. 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